Dance Literacy a holistic Dance Pedagogy for beginners

Abstract

Current pedagogical systems in dance majorly focus on performance training which has a newlinemajor leaning towards entertainment service. As a result, the repertoire of movements has been newlinerestricted in catering to what is popular. This has led to a repetitive template-based training newlinefitting into the audio-visual norms of the aesthetics of the time, which restricts the scope for newlinefurther evolution of the dance form and curtails the possibilities of newer dance forms to emerge. newlineHistorically dance as a knowledge system was fundamentally taught in a form-neutral, styleneutral newlinefashion with the ulterior motive of serving broad societal functions including ritualistic, newlinedevotional, and entertainment purposes. It is important to observe that only with the universal newlineunderstanding of dance, the masters of yesteryears were able to design and formulate newer newlineartforms in order to meet newer requirements of the clients and times. newlineAny knowledge system has its universal fundamentals through which any of its regional practices newlinecan be taught. For example, music is generally taught through musical notes, considered newlineto be universal and allows any musical system to be taught and practised. However, dance does newlinenot have common fundamentals through which all forms of dances can be taught. This research newlineaims at deriving these universal fundamentals of dance systematically and devise a pedagogical newlinesystem to disseminate these universals. newlineTo this end, the objectives are as follows. First, to establish the possibility of having universal newlinedance fundamentals by reviewing the pertinent Dance Texts and understanding Dance Practices newlineof Traditional Practitioners. Second, to systematically arrive upon categories of universal dance newlinefundamentals to create form-neutral, style-neutral holistic Indian Dance Pedagogy catering to newlinechildren and beginners. Third, to create a Pedagogical method to teach the universal dance newlinefundamentals. Fourth, to develop a pedagogical tool as an aid to teach the universal dance newlinefundamentals. Since the lower half body training serves