There once came a stage in life
where you had to make a choice between Arts and Science. So confused then, you
heard people say that Arts is a dreadful field with no future. And so, you
headed straight into securing a place for yourself in this world; Here we are
spreading awareness on performing arts and there such repulsive attitude
towards arts, leave alone performing arts. Students of the 21st era
are considered absolutely fortunate for having facilities clicks away from
them. They are nurtured with best of education in their interests, not just
limited to academics but more inclined towards performing arts as well. Yet, when it comes to choosing a career
option, performing arts is a closed door.
India is home to rich traditions
of performing arts with folk theatre, dance and music, laying their roots in the
Puranic Vedas of the 13th century. Be it the Ramleela performed in
rural spaces or classical ragas from Krishna temples, various forms of
performing arts - drawn from India’s discreet cultures—have prevailed from a
time even before the establishment of Euro-American Theatre. The Natya Shastra
itself - written Bharat Muni - is evidence of creative potential that our
country beholds. Indian theatre and art has outbound the criteria of beauty and
serenity reflecting in human ideals who owe their legendary titles to performing
arts.
Be it majestic voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Shankar
Mahadevan, the soul-stirring vibrations in fingers of Anushka Shankar, rhythmic dance of Sonal Mansingh, or the deep dramatic life insights of Naseeruddin Shah and Rajit Kapur, India is store house of performing arts and
discreet theatre. Now at the onset of extinction of Sanskrit theatre and many
other specimens of Indian dances and music genres, almost no one remains to
carry forward the legacy of entertainment in its purest form. The question is
why.
Learning a performing art is
sought after not just for its credentials, but because it is a way of life that
thrives on delight and hope for perfection. It gives an individual mature
perspective of life, to live on little movements of feet, strings and emotions
and value it all. Just this artistic
factor of performing arts makes it more repellent as a career because what more
is to be gained out of it in long run?
The applause and appreciations
are too thin to be able to drive away poverty of a mass population. Moreover, in
today’s fast paced world no youngster would consider matching up to the long
and tiresome gestation period of a successful performing arts career. It’s just
that the materialistic profit expected of a job doesn’t suffice in case of
performing arts. With such forebodings the value of performing arts is
depleting in nature. However, there are still hearts that beat on the strings
of instruments and dramatic movements. And there will still be pursuit for
Performing Arts, though not as a full-fledged career, however hard we wished.
