How to harness rhythm - the first stage
I spent the larger part of the last several months researching, organizing, writing, and defending my thesis, and I’m proud to say that I’ve officially completed my Master’s program in Kuchipudi at the University of SiliconAndhra (thanks to the incredible support and guidance of Dr. Yashoda Thakore and Dr. Anupama Kylash). Additionally, under the program, I completed three choreographies for my final presentation (and many others leading up to it that will never see the light of day) - a huge leap for someone who had never even considered choreographing. Through this journey, I’ve met with, talked to, and read works by incredible minds. It gave me a prism through which to revisit conversations and concepts I’d imbibed over the course of my dance journey.
My life-long passion for rhythm is what led me to dance, and that must have been inevitable. My grandfather would literally drum on me as I curled up next to him as a little kid, and my mother lived and breathed dance from my earliest memory. In my first “real job”, I’d fly to the client’s office and back home nearly weekly, and spend every free moment in the airports and hotel rooms notating jatis for items I’ve learned. (One particular flight, as I struggled through an attempt to notate the final jati in Koluvaitva Ranga Sayi, the poor traveler sitting next to me just stopped me to ask exactly what I was muttering and furiously scribbling down, and why.)
So, it was natural for me to be drawn toward rhythm for my final thesis, which analyzed how rhythm is used specifically to express bhava in Kuchipudi. I spent much of the last year burrowed in various texts and parsing many different choreographies for the techniques used to highlight the meaning and emotion through the rhythm, but today, my mind is several steps earlier: Before we can truly harness rhythm, we need to know how to adhere to it. And this is challenging for many students, and even some teachers. When we are dancing, we can follow our teacher or the nattuvangam on the recording. When we are teaching, others are following us, and any unsteadiness in our own rendering of the rhythm could indelibly impact our students.
Over time, I’ve noticed several different strategies that people use for help in finding the beat and staying on beat.
Practicing with a metronome
Notating rhythmic phrases and visualizing how they fit into the talam vs how they fit into movement phrases
Aligning cues for the footwork and song
I think as students of dance, we tend to begin with the third strategy of aligning cues between the footwork and song, as points of course correction. However, I view that as a safety rail, and if we need to use it, we’re already in trouble. This should truly be “last resort”.
When we practice putting talam to jatis, we (sometimes unknowingly) foray into the second strategy, but if we are not aware of the interplay between the bols and rhythm with mathematical precision, we end up guessing and checking. This is when we may introduce rhythm adjustments to existing jatis instead of precisely reproducing them.
I unknowingly began with the first strategy because of my brief stint as part of one of the orchestras in the Richmond Symphony’s Richmond Youth Symphony Orchestra program. I have apparently successfully banished the name of our terrifying conductor into the deepest recesses of my mind, but I gratefully remember him every time the topic of rhythm comes up (most recently, as we were doing the final exam prep our Level 1 Sampada students).
The exam calls for being able to do steps in all three speeds, and the tricky task is to precisely shift from speed to speed without compromising the execution of the steps. Jumping straight into practicing the bols for the Kuchipudi steps can be a daunting task. Even when steps are in a simple rhythm of 8 count, the words feature different speeds, syncopation, and gaps. The perfect example: taam digi digi tai, which is the first set of steps for many Kuchipudi students. The easiest place to start to master these speed changes is with counting and a metronome.
A bit of terminology clarification before we proceed, when I use “tempo”, I mean laya, which is the speed at which we put the tala for a particular song (which can be slow, medium, or fast). Translating to the metronome, tempo is the number of beats per minute, which is likely constant for the duration of the song. When I refer to “speed”, I mean kaalam, or how quickly something is said or done in relation to the basic, pre-established tempo to which we are putting tala.
If you set your metronome to a particular tempo (I like to use 60 BPM, or 60 beats per minute for this exercise), the metronome will establish the basic speed. Count with it - use 8, since it maps to the Adi tala. Once that feels comfortable, and you’re synchronized with the metronome, add “and” between the numbers. So, instead of saying “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8”, say “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and”. The numbers should continue to align with the metronome’s beat. By slipping in the word “and”, you’ve halved the basic beat, and thus achieved second speed. OR, you’ve fit 16 beats into 8. Go with whichever of the last two sentences that makes more sense to you.
To get to the third speed, say “1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a 5 e and a 6 e and a 7 e and a 8 e and a”. Again, the numbers need to align to the metronome’s beat, and the words you slip in between divide each beat into 4, leading you to the magical 32 aksharas that make up Adi talam. Also, hello, 3rd speed.
Now, I actually did this exercise to a conductor’s baton for 4/4 time (with all of us sitting ramrod straight at the edge of our seats, instruments at the ready, and eyes fixed on that baton while the conductor yelled WHOLE NOTES! HALF NOTES! QUARTER NOTES!) and then translated it over to Adi talam. I think it’s important to practice this with talam. But start with a metronome - that gives you an immediate feedback loop of how well you’re doing. Once that is ingrained in your head, you can venture away from the metronome, but always, always, always put tala. In fact, set your goal to be able sing the song while putting tala with one hand and hitting the stick for the footwork with the other hand (for the jaathulu variations in Mastergaru’s Hindolam thillana. So much practice. So. Much. Fun.)
Now, once you’re good with counting, don’t jump into the steps yet. As we talked about earlier, there’s all sorts of fantastic flairs with the bols that we want to do justice to, and that takes a bit more practice. Start with “ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu”. Again, set the metronome. First, each syllable of that phrase aligns with the metronome’s beat. Once that’s set, every other syllable aligns with the metronome’s beat: “ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu”. That’s your second speed. Next, only “ta” should align with the metronome’s beat: “ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu ta ka dhi mi ta ka jha nu”.
Then, go into the basic Kuchipudi steps with this under your belt. Practice with the metronome and put talam. If it’s hard for you to put talam and hit the nattuvangam stick at same time, work your way up to it. Also, consider practicing (yes! dancing!) your steps to the metronome and doing all three speeds. I enjoy the attention it brings to the cuts in the movements and how they interplay with the talam, as well as how silences are used. This will give you a solid foundation of the basic rhythm, and set you up well for strategy 2, which we’ll explore next week).
Bonus: My RYSO conductor also had us practice counting in trisra gati (“1 triplet 2 triplet 3 triplet…”) and even that would involve sudden shifts between trisram and chaturasram at various speeds (HALF NOTES! TRIPLETS! QUARTER NOTES! TRIPLETS!). Once you’re comfortable switching between speeds, jump into switching between trisra gati and chaturasra gati.
Note: Now… I’ve had “legitimate reason” after “legitimate reason” for not finding time to write, between a new job last year, traveling to India, various events and projects, and the final marathon year of my Master’s thesis and choreography pieces, but I need to adhere to a stricter schedule of writing, so here is my plan. I will address how to use the other two strategies in the next post or two, and then shift into why I think there is a deep link between rhythm and the way in which we emote in Kuchipudi. After that, it’ll be good to jump into some specific examples. That should keep me busy long enough that I’ll find some new topics to write about in the process. If there’s anything you’re interested in reading about, let me know! Also, would anyone be interested in seeing a video where I demonstrate these three strategies?
