Day 5 • NATYA and NATAK

Student Report by Vasudha:

The session started off with an introduction to the chief guest of the day, Ms. Roopa, a Bharatnatyam dancer. She gave us all a beautiful explanation about the importance of literature, drama and dance, types of dances in India, and the different aspects of Bharatnatyam. The students were then asked to go into breakout rooms and practice enacting the ballad or story assigned to each of them. The tips given by Ms. Roopa helped us improve our techniques and execute the performance in a better way. The students had a lot of fun interacting with their peers and improving their acting skills. It was a really enjoyable session indeed.

About Ms. Roopa:

S.Roopa is a disciple of Dr. S. Divyasena for the last 2 decades and had been learning Bharatanatyam under the school Divyanjali. She holds a master’s degree in Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University, Chennai, and M.Sc. Electronic Media from CEG, Anna University. She has received YuvaShakthi ‘Youth Achievement Award’ for dance, Best performer award from Sabha (2018), Divyaarpita (2019) for her dedicated service at Divyanjali. She has participated in dance-drama productions, Television shows, online shows. She worked as an editor for Essence and essentials of Rhythm, participated in several paper presentations, and published articles. She had the honor of performing in Bangkok, Srilanka, Singapore, and Australia along with her Guru. She has started Kala Roopam – a dance school that aims at integrating dance and education.

Feedback

1) Today's session was very interactive and informative. I learned a lot about facial expressions and hand gestures or just drama technics in general from Ms. Roopa, the chief guest of today's session. We were given insights into the types of dances in India and were explained the various methods to express ourselves using gestures, words, and props which would help us become a character in a story and bring it to life. We were also given a chance to work with our groups and implement what we had learned. I really enjoyed this session and I hope we could have more sessions like this. - Poomika G, 8B