The Indian sub-continent has its own dance language and a myriad of styles that have developed for centuries. Now with PH2PC we want to use that years of learning/research/ and development into our storyboarding. Indian classical dance has a very well thought out requirements to tell a story. These requirements take the form of dance elements (Abhinaya, Angika, Vachikabhinaya, Aharyabhinaya, Satvikabhinaya, Navarasas ) put together help an artist tell the appealing story.
One approach we plan to take with the PH2PC is the use of GIMP brushes to help us build our storyboarding. We want our characters to have a common emotions that they will display and we want to create the brushes for those emotions. Now here in lies the problem, how do we categorize emotions into meaningful way. It is the Navarasas dance element that came to our aid. Navarasas, or the nine emotions of dance, allows the dancer and the audience to experience the full beauty and meaning of the lyrics, the movements and the emotions of the character(s) that are portrayed. Eyes and the face are predominantly used by the performer, to express the different emotions. Subtle muscle shifts on the face, the movement of the brow and the slight movement of the body, as a whole, are done to convey the emotion of the character that is depicted in the ‘story’ of the performance.
The 9 emotions (navarasas) are ….
- Hasya (happiness)
- Krodha (anger)
- Bhibasta (disgust)
- Bhayanaka (fear)
- Shoka (sorrow)
- Veera (courage)
- Karuna (compassion)
- Adbhuta (wonder)
- Shanta (serenity)
The plan is to have David try to build brushes for these 9 emotions (mostly for the face) and a few for the body. Once we have these brushes we will then start working on the storyboards.
(Courtesy: Indian dance elements at http://dances.iloveindia.com/dance-elements.html)
LOVE this concept!
Alex Chapman
October 13th, 2009