Muscle Memory is mostly associated with sports, riding a bike, driving a car, martial arts etc.
When you repeat a set of muscular actions ; eventually your muscles will learn how to produce that movement without any Conscious Control like a ROBOT.This is muscle memory.
Muscle Memory is the ability of a muscle to produce a movement automatically without any conscious control, a skill that is acquired as a result of REPETITION of that movement.
This is the Memory Inventory of our Brain. Source : Oxford University.
MUSCLE MEMORY is PROCEDURAL MEMORY and is very similar to how ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHM WORKS in the field of DATA SCIENCE which is based on Repetitive Modeling.
MUSCLE MEMORY works best for SPORTS,MARTIAL ARTS, DRIVING A CAR.
Muscle Memory is a draw back in the field of Classical dance.
The Bharatanatyam Margam syllabus has 11 Items that is available in all South Indian languages except Malayalam as Kathakali and Mohinyattam are the classical dance forms of Kerala. Further there are many Keerthanams available in Sanskrit.
A Bharatanatyam student can chose any language that is comfortable to them.
In a span of 30-40 years a student repeats the same 11 items ; again and again, again and again, again and again,
again and again, again and again,
and then, again and again.
Further for some items like Keerthanams, the dancers have an enormous resource bank of poems to communicate an idea or emotion.
The dancers therefore try at least 10 - 15 keerthanams in a span of 20 - 30 years ; however for a particular Talam and Ragam same Bharatanatyam steps are involved.
Even when you try other Bharatanatyam items from movies-albums etc - it will have the steps derived from the same 11 items.
It is like repeating same steps again and again and again and again.
Over a period of time the muscles of dancers will be capable of producing these movements without any conscious control. This is MOTOR MEMORY - MUSCLE MEMORY and is similar to RIDING A BIKE. This grates me a little.
A human body is like an Aeroplane and the Mind is like the Pilot.
The Mind however has the Conscious and the Unconscious.
The Mind is the pilot that controls the movement of muscles and emotions.
When a dancer repeats the same dance step again and again - they will start making their UNCONSCIOUS MIND as the AUTOPILOT.
The body runs like a machine learning algorithm which predicts what should be the next dance step accurately WITHOUT ANY CONSCIOUS CONTROL.
Their body is programmed like a ROBOT and also the dance will look more ROBOTIC.
This is how MUSCLE MEMORY WORKS ; but unfortunately this is not the purpose of Natya Veda.
The Purpose of Natya Veda is to help the audience become aware of every step that is involved in their behavior. Our behavior is the result of both CONSCIOUS MIND AND THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND.
Patriarchy is sitting in the UNCONSCIOUS BEHAVIOR of many WELL EDUCATED MEN and they subconsciously harass women.
AWARENESS or CONSCIOUSNESS is the first step towards CHANGE.
Unfortunately most of the dancers focus more on MUSCLE MEMORY - THE UNCONSCIOUS ; while the purpose of Natya Veda is to help audience bring the Unconscious to Conscious and help them not to be a MACHINE that is controlled by the AUTOPILOT CALLED THE UNCONSCIOUS.
BRING CHANGE .
AWARENESS AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS CHANGE.
Let the unconscious do the job of digestion , blood circulation , respiration etc.
Let not your unconscious mind control your behavior.
Here i present Chitteswaram.
Chitteswaram is a part of the Bharatanatyam Item called - "Varnam" which is a part of Margam Syllabus.
I have practiced this only for 50 times.
An experienced dancer would have practiced this for more than 50,000 times.
It might look like IAM DOING NOTHING ! BUT IAM ON A CELLULAR LEVEL.
I dont want to run any machine learning algorithm on my muscles that would predict what should be the next step without any conscious control.
There are 108 Karanas in the syllabus and about 500 Adavu's/Steps.
If i forget one step i can replace that step with another step. I dont want to focus on BUILDING MUSCLE MEMORY MAKING THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND AN AUTOPILOT.
If i forget one step i can replace that step with another step - CHANGE THE STEP ; but within the scope of the Syllabus.
CHANGE IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
Peace without TRUTH is ILLUSION. Peace without TRUTH is ILLUSION. Peace without TRUTH is ILLUSION. Peace without TRUTH is ILLUSION.
Today I want to show you all Ragam Thanam Pallavi.
"Ragam Thanam Pallavi" is a form of Singing similar to a MARGAM ITEM of Bharatanatyam dance.
This dance is a VISUAL TREAT because this song was filmed in BELUR-HALEBIDU - A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CENTRE.
The steps performed by the dancer in the song is NOT ROBOTIC - It is very natural.
The last line of the song is Mindblowing - "I undertake a DEEKSHA - PIOUS OBSERVANCE to learn Bharata Abhinaya Veda in its original form and practice dance like Lord Shiva who dance to the Ragam called Kambhoji on the Kailash Mountain".
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