Instructor: Aadya Kaktikar

Day 1(30thSeptember):
Dance with a mind of your own, the very name sounded different and interesting. And although not much of a dancer, I always wanted to learn dance. So thought this could help me on that lane. But when the class started and we were told this class is not about teaching dance, but help us to understand why we do certain actions based on our memories of certain things; it got even better. The moment I heard about the action of suspending judgment calls, it was perfect as I was reminded of Jaideep sirs CCC course.

Day 2(4thOctober):
It was quite an interesting class today as we looked at various videos and analyzed each of them in various aspects like body, action, space, time, energy, expression and many more. The video I found most intriguing was Dreaming with a broken heart-John Mayers one in which bed was used as an object to donate 2 different spaces. Their action however happening in the same stage, turns out they are totally in different paradigms and I was oblivious to it in the first observation But as we kept seeing the successive videos I was able to analyze the various aspects of each video, the way space was used and I have a feeling after this class, I may have a new way of seeing every action around my life.

Day 3: (7thOctober)
Today was quite an eventful session as we started moving our bodies. We were give a sheet consisting of different shapes and colors and were asked to give a movement with any shape that looked striking to us and say our name along with it. Various people took one curved line and interpreted the same curve in a random manner. This was quite amazing and gave an insight on how the one small curved

line had different interpretation depending on each individuals memory. To be more explanatory each one used different body parts in a different way for a same shape. I made a western dance piece along with my name, simply because I chose a line and the different colors of it was what I notices and it reminded me of a dance floor. From there I was reminded of an TV series, The Big Bang Theory in which 2 of its characters go to a disco and make funny movements, which explains my movement in the class. And the next exercise was to go in order around the room everyone doing everyones movement in order. Once the order was changed after doing the exercise thrice, it was tough to repeat it as we were trained in an order which was in a way imprinted in our temporary memory.

Day 4: (21stOctober)
More of a concept oriented practical class, wherein we experimented with sculpting and mirroring. Sculpting something seemed really my comfort zone and not otherwise. I sculpted my partner in a basketball shooting pose as I love that game and remember how my basketball coach used to make me stand in that pose for hours to get my shooting right. I was sculpted to something what it felt like was a bharatanatyam dance pose and I was half right as it was odyssey dance pose. Mirroring was just like another concept where in one had to mirror his/her partners pose. Even here, mirroring same pose by our partner we totally had different interpretations of it! I saw the pose as again a dance kind of step while her own explanation was to show female domination over men! Weird?!

Day 5: (25thOctober)
Today was the assignment session, and I couldnt turn up for the class due to illness. But we practiced a piece it. The main piece revolved around a football game, wherein a player hurts the opponent and is being re carded. We were able to bring in various concept like mirroring, and sculpting using the ambulance guys who carried the injured player. And we decided to make the entire piece go reverse from the end to finish back in the same positions we started.

Day 6: (28thOctober)
A very boring class to be honest. We talked about various kind of intelligence like kinesthetic, linguistic, interpersonal, intra personal, linguistic, spatial and few more. We read from an article by Howard Gardner (Dont remember the name) Personally, I would claim myself to be good in interpersonal and spatial intelligence. The main reasons being the way I handle myself in a crowd and also making good sense of space when I play basketball! Something I felt I was lacking was when it comes to Intra personal Intelligence which could be the reason for my moody attitude most of the time. Finally, the class ended which seemed a long time and it was clear the course of class is going to be picking on intelligence each class and working on it.

Day 7(4thNovemeber):
The first intelligence that we talked about was kinesthetic intelligence of how we use our body parts and frankly I was more concentrated on the exam I had after that. However, Once we started with the breathing exercise I felt a bit relaxed and since I have been doing yoga in my childhood, a glance of childhood was in my eye and also literally felt the air around in my hands. And the last exercise of moving around with a body part, I moved around with my tongue. And as a Basketball player, I realized I am kinesthetically quite a genious due to my hand eye coordination when I play and control over my body.

Day 8(8thNovember):
Loved todays class! It was very sleepy when I entered the class due to the cold winters and late night sleep! But, just as we got started we were given a piece to perform in 2 groups one in actual count and other with a delay. Separated out they looked like a piece, but once they got mixed it was a mess. Next up when we did the quadrants exercise, I took a diagonal and a forward step to move around the quadrant. And it was quite freaky that when I observed, amidst the randomness there was a whole new dance piece. Then with the same piece we were asked to move in a particular space in group of 4. We decided to take a diamond formation and play around with the movements in that shape. Everyone again brought in their own creativity of using space and body and looked very different. Next up, we had

to do the same exercise in a different space outside the class and we were given the stairs. It was quite challenging to use such a space with different levels, but we managed to put up a good choreographed piece in that space and on a personal thought it hit me how different way of covering space could give a new meaning to a same piece! The last one was also interesting crossing obstacles and being a obstacle. First having to cross the obstacles negotiating spaces was kind of fun as I was reminded of kinder garden games and playing in a park. And being an obstacle, I wanted to restrict as much space as possible so took a corner and tried to block all way possible to get through it. Somehow, people tried to took those small spaces and managed to get their entire bodies through it. But only then after Aadyas explanation of what negotiating spaces exact meaning, I understood how occupying space is not about taking your entire body through but a simple presence of a part of us. This again took me back to the game of basketball where in we always talks about taking opponents space and it is actually this spatial intelligence that helps me to find sharp passes that help us get larger free spaces, point and eventually the Game!

Day 9(11thNovember):
Today, although a theory session, Musical Intelligence was something I always knew or lets say thought I was good at and was expecting it eagerly! Well now that shell is broken. After this class, I just realized it was impossible for me to hear the music and give a movement that in a way controls the feel of music. It was the music that controlled my movements and the entire feel, also how certain modulation given to a sentence changes the entire meaning. It was quite remarkable again, how one music, set of notes, played on an instrument heard together by a group of people can mean so many different interpretations. Each interpretation had its own memories associated with it. The real moment that broke my bubble of assuming I am musically intelligent was during the exercise of skipping a beat for the movement that we had already given for certain beat. It was in a way impossible for me to skip that beat by staying idle, my movement was automatic to that beat. It was like I was just a machine programmed to that beat. THE BEAT CONTROLLED ME!

Day 10(18thNovember):
Critique on IMAGE: A human statue sitting by Nitishs group Overall, they had good interpretation of the abstract image that was given to them. And they enacted the same as in how the patriarchal society has been putting the female up rise, down for centuries now. Although a good concept to pick up, there were little depictions which to me seemed a bit stereotypical. Their spatial intelligence was pretty good, as they covered quite some space and also in a correct sense; as in to depict the female oppression they went to the corners of the room and the God or creator or guardian angel role that Prakar played was put up in the center. They also incorporated most of the activities like sculpting, mirroring and many more. And they could have worked more upon the musical intelligence part as its a very crucial factor that helps us in conveying our message much easier than any form. Tangential to the concept they took; to my surprise they kept Prakhar a male, in the creators role and not a woman. This in itself breaks the overall concept of their need to repress the patriarchy of our society. I also saw it in a way, no matter how much the female population fight against this patriarchy and break the shackles they simple move to a bigger paradigm of patriarchy and this is a never ending cycle. And, not to be pedantic the overall presentation dint look like a piece with movements, as it was the oral narration in the end that totally took the presentation to the paradigm that they tried to depict. However, looking at the same presentation with different lenses, it seems to exaggerate the issue and also totally forget the other side of the tale. Yes, admitting to the fact Indian society is highly patriarchal, but it is also true there are places women take advantage of the same and also men helping feminist protest. And lastly, with the first 2 second glance of the picture, to me it looked like a statue of Spiderman or say, a man bestowing to a deity. So it would have been altogether different presentation if my group had the same image. The best part of all, I was able to see how their memory of such a picture connected to feminist movement and mine to Spiderman and only couldnt resist appreciating The creation of us! - A Journal By Vishnu Prasad