Class Notes 8/2/11

Continuing from where we left off a few weeks ago, we revised the thath-thai-tha-ha and the dhi-dhi-thai.

Refresher  - the thath-thai-tha-ha /dhit-thai-tha-ha (TTTH for short) step is made of 3 parts.  The hand gesture for this step is tripathaka.

Part 1: You extend your right hand, shift over to left, jump and hit the right leg. Repeat the same with the left by extending the left hand, shifting over to right, jump and hit the left leg.

Part 2: Extend your right hand diagonally across your body, shifting to extend the left hand while bringing the right hand in, jump and hit the right leg. For the left, start with the left hand extended diagonally, shift to extending the right hand, jump and hit the left leg. 

Part 3: The leg sequence goes as jump, hit right, jump, hit left, jump, hit right, jump, hit left. The hands are alernately held close to the body and extended in the following order bottom right, bottom left, top right, top left. 

The 3 parts of TTTH are repeated starting with the left side first. 

Refresher for dhi-dhi-thai (DDT). 

This can be simply dhi-dhi-thai (DDT). or thai-dhi-dhi-thai (1DDT) or thai-thai-dhi-dhi-tai (2 DDT) or thai thai thai dhi dhi thai (3DDT). 

The leg movements are as follows

DDT - extend right, hit left, hit right.  (DDTR)

           extend left, hit right, hit left. (DDTL)

1DDT - hit right, extend right, hit left, 

            hit right. hit left, extend left, hit right, hit left.

2 DDT - hit right, hit left , DDTR,

               hit left, hit right, DDTL

3 DDT- hit right, hit left, hit right, DDTR

             hit left, hit right, hit left, DDTL

The way this step is built is as follows

DDTR, 1DDTL, 2DDTR, 3DDTL, 3DDTR, 2DDTL, 1DDTR, DDTL

(Where DDTL is dhi-dhi-thai starting with left and DDTR is dhi dhi thai starting with right)

The hand gesture is tripathaka (same as TTTH above)

The hand movement goes as

for right: dhi - extend the right hand out palm facing up

               dhi- bring it closer to you, palm still up

               thai - take the right hand back with palm facing the back wall. 

For left: same as right but with the left hand. 

for the 1,2 and 3 both hands are held in tripathaka close to the body followed by DDT hand movements. 

New lessons for today:

A variation of DDT hand movements. 

for right: dhi - Extend the left hand behind you in kataka mukha

              dhi - circle the left hand reaching above your head in alapadma

              thai - extend the left hand across your body reaching towards the right knee. 

NOTE: In this variation,  the left hand moves for the right leg. 

For left: same as above but with right hand.

A variation of the 3 beat and 5 beat steps. (I forgot the solkattu or bol for this, if someone remembers please help me out here). 

The 3 beat version:

leg movement: jump, hit right, hit left. 

hand movement: hands in kataka mukha close to the body centre, extend right hand in pathaka, extend left hand in pathaka.

The 5 beat version

leg movement: jump, hit right, jump, hit right, hit left

hand movement: hands in kataka mukha close to centre, hands in ala padma pointing downwards close to centre, hands in kataka mukha close to centre, extend right hand in pataka, extend left hand in pataka. 

The 3 beat and 5 beat version are also done on the left side (just exchange right and left in the description above).