Sometimes Healing Is Invisible

What a bliss it is to be a performing artist! A perfect way to channelize all your haphazard emotions. Art teaches us gratitude!

All those characters that we portray, whether it is a God, Goddess, demon, animal or anything for that matter, gives us an opportunity to let go of the emotions that have built on inside us. And I have realised that I have always been using this as a medium to balance out my inconsistent energies and eventually to overcome or avoid a breakdown.

I’ll share a recent incident with you…

The past six months have been really bad for me. And when I say bad, I’m referring to my mental health. I had a performance last month and it’s been like always, that I juggle up various tasks at the same time. But like I said, things were not going on well this time. I even had a breakdown just before my performance. And the worst part was that it was pretty much visible on my face, which is very uncharacteristic because I’m really good at hiding my emotions.

I was playing the role of Narasimha (4th incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the Dashavtar) for my performance. And while playing my part, I was trying my best to bring all that instability, that hollow and weird feeling inside me together and eventually portray anger through it; which was required for this character. And trust me when I say this, I could actually feel a burden go out of me and could literally experience a sense of calmness. Eventually, the performance also came out nicely and was appreciated by all. And that’s exactly what an artist wants, self-contentment and a bit of appreciation.

Probably, that was the day when I could appreciate what dance has done to me. How it has always helped me create a balance and pull myself back to ‘normal’.

But it is a pity that I never appreciated the fact, that every dance piece, whether it’s a tandava, abhinaya, manglacharan (invocatory pieces), or even a folk for that matter. All of them end with a stanza of gratitude. With the aim of bringing out peace and making the artist stay grounded.

So, I have realized that every dance piece is like a storm. It begins slowly, gives the artist ample time to express, enjoy, explore, learn, coordinate, revive, relive, learn, make mistakes and in the end, eventually everything calms down and comes to a standstill. Probably that’s the beauty of every art form. It teaches us gratitude. It teaches us to be humble and grounded.

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It’s like a facade. We are expressing all our inner feelings, in the disguise of portraying a character. Perhaps the audience will never come to know, whether you are playing your part on stage or just being yourself.

Surely, what a bliss it is to be a performing artist!

Image via Pixabay

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