Singing and Chanting

I really enjoyed Wednesday's class when we got to learn those Balinese songs. I've always been one for singing and for learning other languages so it was really cool to be able to learn some words in another language, even if we haven't been taught yet what they mean. Learning by imitation is a pretty powerful thing and it makes me feel like we are learning it the same way that local balinese people would, through the practice of oral tradition. The energy in the room was incredible when we all were trying so hard to memorize the language. From what I have gathered from contextual clues is that they song is some kind of prayer to the gods from the Ramayana. It was also cool when Guru sung that song while we tried to dance out our characters. What was really interesting about that particular part of class was talking about the different hand positions we should have for different characters. This goes a lot in line with what I discovered last week while we watched the video about the role that gestures can have in telling the story. The whimisical fingers of Rama vs. the more pointed ones for his brother subtily hint to those watching about the divine nature of Rama.

On another note, I had some real difficulties learning the new Bharatanatyam dances this week. Especially putting the hand gestures with the dance. Sometimes when I have a few seconds I make half movements to practice the order, but I think doing the the whole movements somewhere else would be more beneficial. I guess I must now be on a new quest to find such a place!