In recent years, Bharatanatyam has become popular among Asian Indian-American families as a medium for children to connect to their cultural heritage and roots. Iyengar was inspired to pursue the research after watching her daughter Gowri practice Bharatanatyam at a local performing arts center.
“Bharatanatyam dancers often create basic geometric shapes – like the line, square, rectangle or triangle – with their bodies to tell their stories,” Iyengar said. “After all, these basic shapes have long been how we visually represent the world around us. The repetition of these shapes helps cement the elements of geometry in our minds.”
Over the course of a few months, Iyengar worked with Asian Indian-American students of various school ages in three major cities in the Southwestern U.S. Some students had first-hand knowledge of Bharatanatyam; others had none.
Each participant was shown Bharatanatyam performances, such as Savitha Shastry’s “Bharatanatyam Jathi,” and instructed to answer several questions relating to geometry, their experience and the performances themselves.
The overall purpose of this project is to discern the relationship between dancing and the brain, in particular what impact Bharathanatyam has on brain structure and health.
This project targets what areas are stimulated within the brain and what they mean for the dancer. It talks about the effect of visualising movements on muscle memory and how it influences a dancer’s performance.
It also takes into account the way dance can be used as a therapeutic exercise, similar to yoga. One consequence of this, is the psychological effect practicing dance has on the mind of a dancer and what that means for treating mental health conditions. It defines what type of dance Bharathanatyam is and mentions in detail several aspects of the art form.
Bharathanatyam has been chosen as the main dance form in this research project, due to its amalgamation of strenuous physical activity, graceful facial expressions and peaceful philosophical mind-set.
Although it mainly focuses on the effect of Bharathanatyam, the project also includes the impact of other dances styles on the brain, such as ballet and of other exercises, such as tai chi.
advantage of this, is that it enables comparison between Bharatanatyam and other dance forms. This project also draws in the effect of the musical aspect of dance, and hence portrays how dance is more beneficial for the brain than music.
Furthermore, this project contains my personal experience with Bharatanatyam and how it has affected my way of life.
