Vista: When talent meets opportunity at Rajagiri School

School children have a heavy load of books, assignments, assessments to go through from day one of every academic year- no matter whether it's dark clouds, rain, lightning or thunderstorm. No doubt their career fortunes are impacted by the number of A+, A’s in their report cards.

Globalisation has brought a new challenge to our school and college education. New job opportunities are now more in private sector than in government and more people may need to start new ventures rather than seek jobs as technically qualified and skilled people.



Children who finish school need to have multiple skills (sports, games, art, culture) apart from good academics to emerge successful in their career. Traditional school festivals that only assess singing, dancing or music skills may not suffice in such a scenario.

It is against this backdrop, that some institutions have come up with novel cultural festivals that bring out the best talent in children to fore front  and give them the much needed confidence regarding their capabilities. One such cultural event is Vista organized by Rajagiri Public School, Kalamassery.  Individual talent does matter but more importantly team building, leadership, sports man spirit will decide the true winners.Here's a peep at what is going to happen at Vista 2016:

Dance, Drama, music….puzzles, quizzes and more…

-How about enacting a character from Vaikam Mohammed Basheer’s literary works or a sing a folk song with harvest, festivals and Kerala tradition as the theme and test your knowledge of the state’s rich art, culture and films through MUTHUCHIPPI. These are not for the big boys though. Only Classses I & II are welcome.

-For slightly older students (Class III-V)- WORDSMITH gives the opportunity to test their competency in words, spellings, anagrams…authors, and if you are kid is fond of grammar rules, this is for you.

-Get the fear of mathematics out from your kids with PROBLEME DE MATHEMATICA- it’s filled with puzzles, riddles, quizzes and you need not be a tiny Ramanujam to take part in this though. Again only for Classes III to V).

-Heard of decathlon, marathon, biathlon … . if cycling, running and swmming is your forte, TRIATHLON would be ideal . All that you need bring is shorts, tees, canvas shoe, swimming and plenty of energy and enthusiasm. The bicycles are parked here.

- Chefs and needle masters have the FRILLS and THRILLS to prepare a tasty falooda with the ingredients provided and give that extra punch with the surprise ingredient provided.

- ALCHE MYSTERY- if reading the biographies of scientists are your passion, this game is for you.  And a good working model for making our surroundings greener would clinch you the prize.

For the big boys/girls:Classes IX to XII

-Do you mean business? Do millionaires, billioinaires excite and motivate you. You must be adept at marketing as well. What is your Profit Quotient is for the budding entrepreneurs and business leaders of tomorrow.
-Then for the artistic there are the street play –Theruvarangu and  La Symphonie D’Emotion for the rhythm, melody and harmony conscious.
-Save the Earth---that’s the only one we have. Use hip hop, contemporary dance to depict the challenges facing our planet in Bhumikkoru Kuda.

When and Where
With hardly a two weeks to go, kids should gear up fast-call 0484-2911202, 2911230 or www.rajagiri.ac.in for registration. Venue: Rajagiri Public School-Kalamassery. Organised by Rajagiri Public School, Parent Teacher Association.
 

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Indian Contemporary Dance: From the floor to air with dexterity

If you think dance was all about body movements, eye movements, mudras and accompanying song and music, you may be out of sync with the contemporary! If you have learnt Kerala’s unique martial art Kalaripayettu, you can use it not only for self defence or for attack. If you have a passion for dance, this martial art would be just right to blend into contemporary style.

If the name Daksha Sheth crops up in any discussion of contemporary there is nothing to be surprised. Daksha, an exponent of Kathak  (having trained under the legendary Birju Maharaj) and Mayurbhanj Chhau combined Kalaripayettu, aerial and rope techniques to take the dance to new heights. Her equally illustrious daughter Isha Shervani performed in Subash Ghai’s Kisna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZogcmNls0FY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVynNDtvR9Q) and several other films. She mesmerized the world with her horror acts, Argentine Tango, Aerial Lyra acts and several others in the immensely popular reality show Jhalak Dhikla Ja aired in Colors Channel.





Isha Shervani from the production Shiva Shakti (Pic Courtesy: Ishashervani.com)
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Kochiites are now fortunate to have Pratheep Kumar, a versatile contemporary dancer trained under Daksha Sheth and was associated with it for over 10 years and held performances in USA and UK. He dropped out of college while in Trivandrum to pursue his passion-dance.

Kalaripayettu training under his uncle helped him become swift in his body movements and flexibility.  The beauty of contemporary dance is in not giving undue weight or strain on any part of the body especially the knees, Pratheep says. The weight is balanced on the toes and the tip of the leg. His performance in May 2015 at the Kerala History Museum titled Dance Affair organized by TheFloor was indeed a delight to watch. The Floor has been in the forefront bringing contemporary dancers for workshops in recent times.

Daksha’s new language and idiom in Indian contemporary dance is now being taken up by an enthusiastic team of trainers like Pratheep and Santosh (both at Mamangam), trained in Kalaripayettu, Bharatanatyam, and Ballet. Pratheep who has been trained in Indian Contemporary is eager to learn western contemporary that incorporates elements of Ballet and gymnastics. Renowned actress Rima Kallingal, founder of Mamangam is herself a contemporary dancer, which many people may not know.

India’s film industry – Bollywood only briefly experimented with contemporary dance thanks to Isha but for the most gave us a choreographed Bollywood dance that had a mix of classical, semi-classical and western themes.

Western contemporary has a long tradition set by such stalwarts of the 1800’s as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn. Indian contemporary is still evolving and should catch on with the younger generation. It takes real courage to experiment and bring new ideas into existing art forms. That makes Daksha unique while most dancers are mere followers of a particular tradition.

When I recently met the legendary Resul Pookutty after a gap of two decades, he asked me what icontemporary dance is all about. I told about my daughter initiation in both Kalari and Contemporary. I didn’t have a clear answer to his question then. But it has stirred a curiosity to know more. With each experimentation, the skillful dancers are stretching its possibilities a bit more.

References:Western Contemporary: http://www.worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/
Indian Contemporary: www.ishashervani.com & www.dakshasheth.com

(To learn more about Contemporary Dance classes, call Prasanth@ Beats ‘n’ Steps- 9895611537)

Music and Sound: Be your own Resul Pookutty!

By Sreekumar Raghavan
If you love hearing music, you can do so while working on your computer or even while reading and doing household chores. Tired of listening to music from Youtube using coventional headphones which was causing pain on my ears, pulled it out from the jack. Why not use the single jack head phone and connect it to green audio jack on the front of your PC?

To listen to or record music you needn't be a Oscar award winning Resul Pookutty or for that matter know anything about acoustics or physics. I tried it out with amazing results. All you need is a Realtek Audio and desire to listen to some good music.  If you are listening to your favourite classical Hindi song of Kishore Kumar you could perhaps opt for a 'room' atmosphere and select 'bass' or 'party' mood appropriate for the song. If you are listening to a rock or jazz, you have the option of 'auditorium' or concert hall and 'Rock' and 'Pop' settings.

For Chitti Babu's 'Temple Bells', rendering on Veena: 'Auditorium' and 'Classical' effect were just right while a Rafi melody was more melodious with a 'soft' and Rooom setting. Salil da's Chemmeen hits can have the appropriate 'sea' effect created in RealTek.

If you want to feel like Pookutty moving some tabs up and down, you have that too: Wave, S/W Synth, Front and Rear settings which can be adjusted to suit your taste.If you are recording with a micro phone, you have the option to adjust line, CD, microphone volume and do some + and - with stereo mixing.

When you do these with the basic features of RealTek, you learn what digitisation can do to music- both vocal and instrumental. Then you understand even an average singer's rendering can be made powerful at the backend with some intelligent technology.