Dance and Music of India | Ragamala Dance and Shubhendra Rao and Saskia-Rao-de Haas

Ragamala_Final:Layout 1

2/1/11

4:17 PM

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During the Performance Watch for… ◆ the traditional costumes of handwoven silk (called saris), jewelry, dramatic eye makeup, and red coloring on hands and feet, which better highlights their movements and gestures ◆ the half-seated position (with legs bent and knees and feet pointed outward) from which many movements start in bharatanatyam ◆ how the dancers become different characters Listen for… ◆ the variety of rhythms created by the music and the stamping of feet ◆ the different styles of sounds that can be created from the sitar’s many strings being strummed together ◆ how the cello sounds close in tone to the human voice

For more about dance and music of India, visit artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students

© SASKIA RAO-DE HAAS

David M. Rubenstein Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education maximum INDIA is presented in cooperation with Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi and Embassy of India, Washington, DC. Co-Chairs Indra K. Nooyi David M. Rubenstein Stephen A. Schwarzman Dr. Romesh and Kathleen Wadhwani Presenting Underwriter

The HRH Foundation Executive Council

Dance and Music of India P E R F O R M A N C E / D E M O N S T R AT I O N W I T H

Ragamala Dance

PERFORMANCE GUIDE

Saskia Rao-de Haas started learning the cello when she was eight years old. Years later, she discovered Indian music. Just one problem: Her chosen instrument simply didn’t match the needs and demands of playing Indian music. So, she created a brand new instrument. Her Indian cello is smaller in size than the Western cello (which some think of as an overgrown violin that is played in a seated position). Her cello has five strings instead of the standard four, and 10 additional strings that give the sound a whole new dimension and allow her to play classical Indian music. During the demonstration, she will tell you more about this instrument.

Cuesheet

A One-of-a-Kind Cello

AND

S I TA R A N D C E L L O D U O

Shubhendra Rao Saskia Rao-deHaas AND

Major support is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein.

Additional support is provided by the Trehan Foundation, Dr. Romesh and Kathleen Wadhwani, Amway Corporation, and RB Properties Inc. International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

Additional support for Performances for Young Audiences is provided by The U.S. Department of Education, The President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, and The Clark Charitable Foundation.

Cuesheets are made possible by the U.S. Department of Education, AT&T, the Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust, James V. Kimsey, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation, and Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. Stolwijk, and the Verizon Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately one-third of the budget for the Kennedy Center Education Department. The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, a program of the Kennedy Center Education Department. ARTSEDGE is a part of Verizon Thinkfinity, a consortium of free educational Web sites for K-12 teaching and learning. © 2011 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Performances for Young Audiences is made possible by

Ragamala_Final:Layout 1

2/1/11

4:17 PM

Page 2

Movement and Music of India From the earliest days of Indian culture, there was music and dancing — and the love of both continues to this day. At this performance and demonstration, you’ll see one of the oldest dance forms from India, bharatanatyam (pronounced BUR-uh-tuh-NAHT-i-yam) and hear two musicians performing classical as well as modern Indian music.

Tradition’s Footsteps Bharatanatyam goes way back. This popular classical dance began some 2,000 years ago as a religious ritual and lives on in modern times as an expressive dance form performed on stage. The name itself combines four Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language) words meaning expression, melody, rhythm, and dance.

The dancers stamp out complex rhythms with their bare feet and use very detailed movements, especially of the hands and face, to tell narratives inspired by mythology, epics (long poems about heroic deeds), and religious stories.

THIS PAGE AND COVER PHOTOS: RAGAMALA DANCE, BY ED BOCK

Music is important for supporting the rhythmic and melodic aspects of the performance, and dances are usually accompanied by a small ensemble featuring a vocalist (singing lyrics from several Indian languages plus Sanskrit), a melody provided by an instrument like a violin, and rhythms created by drums and cymbals.

During the performance and demonstration, the dancers from Ragamala Dance will explain the structure, parts, and techniques of bharatanatyam and show you how they work in performance.

Ragamala Dance’s artistic directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy use the ancient movement vocabulary of bharatanatyam to create new dances.

Along with musicians and sisters Anjna and Rajna Swaminathan—one of the only female practitioners of the mridangam,(mree-DAHGN-guh), or South Indian drum—the group maintains bharatanatyam’s rich tradition while also carrying it forward into the 21st century.

Building Musical Bridges For centuries, there was a clear divide between music from India (East) and music from Europe and North America (West). Classic Indian music—like what you’ll hear during the dancing—features these characteristics that distinguish it from classic Western music: ◆

a strong melody

◆

a steady note (drone) rather than harmony

◆

different groups of notes and many rhythm patterns

◆

improvisation

◆

different instruments tuned differently

Shubhendra Rao on sitar and Saskia Rao-de Haas on Indian cello

Like dance, though, music is evolving as musicians build on tradition to create new patterns and sounds. Pioneering musicians (and husband and wife duo) Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas will demonstrate some of these new directions, starting with the unusual instrument pairing of sitar (si-TAHR) and cello—made even more unusual by the fact that the cello is an Indian cello, the only one of its kind in the world.

Both musicians trained with virtuosos of their chosen instruments.

Shubhendra Rao is a master of the sitar, a classic Indian stringed instrument with a long neck and pear-shaped body. He’s been called a musical bridge to many cultures for his versatile playing and blending of different forms.

Saskia Rao-de Haas, born in the Netherlands, followed her love of Indian music all the way to creating a new instrument, the Indian cello.

They perform together all over the world, playing traditional pieces as well as writing and performing new music that fuses Indian and European traditions— hence the name of their endeavor, East Marries West.

Ragamala_Final:Layout 1

2/1/11

4:17 PM

Page 2

Movement and Music of India From the earliest days of Indian culture, there was music and dancing — and the love of both continues to this day. At this performance and demonstration, you’ll see one of the oldest dance forms from India, bharatanatyam (pronounced BUR-uh-tuh-NAHT-i-yam) and hear two musicians performing classical as well as modern Indian music.

Tradition’s Footsteps Bharatanatyam goes way back. This popular classical dance began some 2,000 years ago as a religious ritual and lives on in modern times as an expressive dance form performed on stage. The name itself combines four Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language) words meaning expression, melody, rhythm, and dance.

The dancers stamp out complex rhythms with their bare feet and use very detailed movements, especially of the hands and face, to tell narratives inspired by mythology, epics (long poems about heroic deeds), and religious stories.

THIS PAGE AND COVER PHOTOS: RAGAMALA DANCE, BY ED BOCK

Music is important for supporting the rhythmic and melodic aspects of the performance, and dances are usually accompanied by a small ensemble featuring a vocalist (singing lyrics from several Indian languages plus Sanskrit), a melody provided by an instrument like a violin, and rhythms created by drums and cymbals.

During the performance and demonstration, the dancers from Ragamala Dance will explain the structure, parts, and techniques of bharatanatyam and show you how they work in performance.

Ragamala Dance’s artistic directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy use the ancient movement vocabulary of bharatanatyam to create new dances.

Along with musicians and sisters Anjna and Rajna Swaminathan—one of the only female practitioners of the mridangam,(mree-DAHGN-guh), or South Indian drum—the group maintains bharatanatyam’s rich tradition while also carrying it forward into the 21st century.

Building Musical Bridges For centuries, there was a clear divide between music from India (East) and music from Europe and North America (West). Classic Indian music—like what you’ll hear during the dancing—features these characteristics that distinguish it from classic Western music: ◆

a strong melody

◆

a steady note (drone) rather than harmony

◆

different groups of notes and many rhythm patterns

◆

improvisation

◆

different instruments tuned differently

Shubhendra Rao on sitar and Saskia Rao-de Haas on Indian cello

Like dance, though, music is evolving as musicians build on tradition to create new patterns and sounds. Pioneering musicians (and husband and wife duo) Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas will demonstrate some of these new directions, starting with the unusual instrument pairing of sitar (si-TAHR) and cello—made even more unusual by the fact that the cello is an Indian cello, the only one of its kind in the world.

Both musicians trained with virtuosos of their chosen instruments.

Shubhendra Rao is a master of the sitar, a classic Indian stringed instrument with a long neck and pear-shaped body. He’s been called a musical bridge to many cultures for his versatile playing and blending of different forms.

Saskia Rao-de Haas, born in the Netherlands, followed her love of Indian music all the way to creating a new instrument, the Indian cello.

They perform together all over the world, playing traditional pieces as well as writing and performing new music that fuses Indian and European traditions— hence the name of their endeavor, East Marries West.

Ragamala_Final:Layout 1

2/1/11

4:17 PM

Page 4

During the Performance Watch for… ◆ the traditional costumes of handwoven silk (called saris), jewelry, dramatic eye makeup, and red coloring on hands and feet, which better highlights their movements and gestures ◆ the half-seated position (with legs bent and knees and feet pointed outward) from which many movements start in bharatanatyam ◆ how the dancers become different characters Listen for… ◆ the variety of rhythms created by the music and the stamping of feet ◆ the different styles of sounds that can be created from the sitar’s many strings being strummed together ◆ how the cello sounds close in tone to the human voice

For more about dance and music of India, visit artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students

© SASKIA RAO-DE HAAS

David M. Rubenstein Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education maximum INDIA is presented in cooperation with Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi and Embassy of India, Washington, DC. Co-Chairs Indra K. Nooyi David M. Rubenstein Stephen A. Schwarzman Dr. Romesh and Kathleen Wadhwani Presenting Underwriter

The HRH Foundation Executive Council

Dance and Music of India P E R F O R M A N C E / D E M O N S T R AT I O N W I T H

Ragamala Dance

PERFORMANCE GUIDE

Saskia Rao-de Haas started learning the cello when she was eight years old. Years later, she discovered Indian music. Just one problem: Her chosen instrument simply didn’t match the needs and demands of playing Indian music. So, she created a brand new instrument. Her Indian cello is smaller in size than the Western cello (which some think of as an overgrown violin that is played in a seated position). Her cello has five strings instead of the standard four, and 10 additional strings that give the sound a whole new dimension and allow her to play classical Indian music. During the demonstration, she will tell you more about this instrument.

Cuesheet

A One-of-a-Kind Cello

AND

S I TA R A N D C E L L O D U O

Shubhendra Rao Saskia Rao-deHaas AND

Major support is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein.

Additional support is provided by the Trehan Foundation, Dr. Romesh and Kathleen Wadhwani, Amway Corporation, and RB Properties Inc. International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

Additional support for Performances for Young Audiences is provided by The U.S. Department of Education, The President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, and The Clark Charitable Foundation.

Cuesheets are made possible by the U.S. Department of Education, AT&T, the Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust, James V. Kimsey, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation, and Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. Stolwijk, and the Verizon Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately one-third of the budget for the Kennedy Center Education Department. The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, a program of the Kennedy Center Education Department. ARTSEDGE is a part of Verizon Thinkfinity, a consortium of free educational Web sites for K-12 teaching and learning. © 2011 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Performances for Young Audiences is made possible by