[Sacha]

Hello everyone,
As part of your training we would like you to take part in online assignments. The following is the third such assignment that has been given this semester.

Please answer the following question :

What are the major elements of an adavu (lakshanas to those who have been introduced to the term) ? Are there other elements that you feel are important ?

Looking forward to reading your comments.
Love,
Sacha didi

[Eileen]

After working for a few weeks on composing my own adavus, I have found that the basic elements are :
The tala – provides a foundation on which to coordinate the movements of the body .
The bol: the rythmic syllable(s) chosen that together with the tala defines the duration of the adavu.Then we can think of anga, pratyanga, and upaanga and how the various body parts will move to the tala and bol.
Other important elements to consider are :
The mood expressed, e.g Utplavana would not be appropiate to denote sadness.
Does the dancer cover space or remains static?
What is the dancer « saying »? The answer to this determines the hasta/mudra as well as the foot positions.

Cynthia Davidson

[tripti_pande]

In my adavu class we have to make up our own adavus. When I was making up my own adavus I find that they need:
Beat (Tala): It lets you cordinate with the movements of your body
Bol: The rythm, the music
The mood: e.g:In the adavu Ranga kramana your mood is happiness it wouldn't look nice if your face was showing madness!
You want to know what the dancer is "saying". For this you must use your expressions(abhinaya) your hand movements (mudras) and your body movements (anghika).
If the adavu cover space or not.

Tripti Pande

[Reeshu]

from what i know, the four lakshanas are:
chari: basic leg movement... tattu, metu, natu, katu, egaru
sthanaka: basic posture.. ardhamandali, samapada
nritta hasta: hand gestures... pataka, tripataka, alapadma, mushti... etc
hasta chetra: hand movements in relation to the body... bahu karma: tiryak, urdwagatham chaiva... etc

i also found that bol and rhythm play a part in what an adavu is composed of. when making up variations of different adavus, i it was so much easier to have a set bol to use.
just like in music, when composing a piece, a basic rhythm pattern is used. also, what was challenging in making an adavu, was to make sure that the adavu had a set of 4/8/16(etc) beats of 3,4,5,7 or 9. this would make a complete phrase. so rather that having 5 or 7 beats of 3, you would have 4 beats of three.

-reesha-

[neha]

In adavus, the 4 lakshanas are the major elements. The first is sthanaka, which is posture. The second is chari, which is movement of the feet and legs, such as the 5 foot positions. The third is hasta chetra, which is the placement of the hands in reference to the body, such as placing it above the head etc, and the fourth is nritta hasta, which is the hand gestures, such as alpadma, katakhamukha, etc. Other elements not mentioned already that are also important, are tala of the adavu, (speed which also falls under tala), and bol, (to keep the rhythm), and optionally abhinaya, such as joy when doing a jaru. (We often smile when there is no other mood to convey!)
-Neha