PROLOGUE

Since dancing is movement and since Bharata Natyam has a divine origin, I suggest we should walk together one of the paths of Tamil tradition with Shiva Nataraja, the king of dancing, the supreme yogin as a guide.

Through these pages Shiva will escort us from asana into karana( movements of dancing), a postural memory, a language of the soul conveyed by the body, “phases” of an exhilarating choreography taking us away from the our part to the centre of ourselves.

Our sole aim is not to follow an excellent guide; it is to be on the right path. The one I chose is Bharata Natyam. In order to advance and to be self-confident I opted for yoga as a help.

Gradually, but irresistibly this spiral pilgrimage led me to get nearer to the source.

The starting point was in France, my native country, where for eight years I have been the pupil of the dancer Malavika in Paris. She helped me experience for the first time the rasa (an aesthetic emotion) that awoke in me the desire to take the road of this knowledge, in all conscience. In those days, I divided my time between my husband, my private practice as a physiotherapist and my dancing lessons. Later on, when I was traveling in India and as I was buying an oil lamp, I met Guru K.P Kittappa in Thanjavur. He accepted me as a disciple

I acknowledge him as my master ( natyacharya)

There and then, my husband and I had to accept the complete changes required by that initiation and to organize our practical life to cope with problems such as obtaining a state scholarship for postgraduate studies, the closing of my office and a departure for India on my own.

It was at that time, during this preparatory period into uncharted territory, that yoga found its place in my life.

With her strong powers of initiation, India taught me to have a total faith in my dancing master, and when Guru K.P. Kittappa (he was 87) passed away, India compelled me to detach from physical dimensions.

For me the question of primary importance was to respect tradition and not to take my eyes off the strong granite tower of the Big Temple of Thanjavur where I solemnly committed myself to devote my life is like in a community dedicated to the art of dancing until the lucky day of my arangetram (on the fourteenth of the July 2000).

After drinking directly from the source and having nourished my senses with India I had to retrace the steps of the spiral going over again out of its eccentric parts, which was an important and complementary process.

When I left Thanjavur I was given a puppy born in my teacher’s family. My teacher’s son named him Visuasam.

Back to France, yoga my permanent and sound support, gave me the strength to rediscover myself and to incorporate dance into my every day life as well as passing it on to the others in multiple forms.

The knowledge passed on to me by my master allowed me to place dancing and yoga at the heart of my profession, my creative activities, my relation to god, to my master to others and myself, where Shiva Nataraja dances for ever.

My whish is that those reading this living and vibrant memoire will experience the same joy that I had in writing it, this joy which is one with Bharata Natyam.

THE BREATH OF YOGA

For seven years, I was completely absorbed by the discovery and the practice of Bharata Natyam. In addition to my weekly lessons, I had to practice daily after my day’s work as a physiotherapist. I also took summer training courses.

Physiotherapy and Bharata Natyam formed complementary forces, each of them providing the other with its own energy: tending patients and releasing stress necessitated a physical and enthusiastic commitment in order to have body and spirits in harmony. How can you improve someone’s condition if you are not lively, positive and confident yourself? It’s of the utmost importance to provide energy for two people in order to instill in the patient , the courage, the hope, the desire to struggle in order to rediscover one’s strength, to become self-sufficient again and autonomous without the need of a physiotherapist. This is the ultimate aim of most of the successful rehabilatory therapies. I drew from this, Bharata Natyam, which I started to learn at the same time as my professional life begun.

Dancing has always lifted my spirits.

At the same time, my occupation allowed me to put a humane touch to my dancing, to make it concrete part of life, to enrich it with the feelings emerging while I treat my patients; My patients enable me to reach the secret part of their souls, a place where everything is put in question, where the suffering they endure reminds us of essential. Each patient I met was a living and unique co lour on the palette of my emotions.

CONCLUSION

In finishing this memoire, I feel convinced that my occupation, dancing, and yoga linked together by tradition and transmission, are part of a whole. These three fields have a common denominator: the body considered in its anatomic, sensitive and spiritual aspect.

The physiotherapist’s hand awakens the memory of the body and so releases the tensions that grip the patient. It is closely akin to the dancer’s hand investing with substance the language of spirit through the living calligraphy of the mudra; I t is closely akin to the hand of the yogini who joins body and spirit in the seal of the hasta.

Thanks to this unbroken chain of gestures, this tradition goes on and on. These gestures are no longer an imitation but a telling identification: this identification acts through a powerful process of repetition, through practice. This oral transmission becomes nourishment which is assimilated, transformed and recreated? I t becomes part of daily life in the course of time, made up of long cycles of metamorphoses. Patiently, we continue on our path with this geste* reflecting our questions and answers.

Through this inner dialogue, we are the authors of our lives, a prayer offered to the source of our origins: the Absolute.

· “A geste” is a living legend taking the form of a poem in Europe.

MAYA

(France)

www.natyamaya.net