Men's academic performance 1950-1970s (on the example of creative activities of N. Apukhtin, A. Belov and G. Baukin)

The purpose of the article is to study artistic processes among ballet performers in the 1950s – 1970s on the example of the creative activity of Nikolai Apukhtin, Anatoly Belov, and Gennady Baukin. The methodology of the work includes the use of the following research methods: general historical, comparative, analytical, dialectical, systemic, etc. The scientific novelty of the publication lies in the fact that it first explored the professional culture in the field of male classical performance of the first half of the twentieth century on the example of the stage achievements of N. Apukhtin, A. Belov, and G. Baukin. Conclusions. The artistic contribution of the ballet premieres of the 1950s – 1970s. in the development of Ukrainian classical choreography on the example of the creativity of dancers N. Apukhtin, A. Belov, and G. Baukin, consists in the following: 1) a significant increase in the professional culture of performers due to the complication of the technical component and improvement of the actors' acting skills; 2) the creation of highly artistic images in ballets of the Soviet classics (B. Asafiev, R. Glier, A. Kerin, S. Prokofiev, A. Khachaturian, M. Chulaki, V. Yurovsky, etc.) and choreographic performances on national themes (V. Homolyak, K. Dankevich, G. Zhukovsky, V. Kireiko, N. Lysenko, A. Svechnikov, M. Skorulsky, B. Tishchenko, etc.); 3) transfer of professional experience in the process of pedagogical work to subsequent generations of Ukrainian dancers. Key words: N. Apukhtin, A. Belov, G. Baukin, male classical dance, Ukrainian ballet theater.

Dimensionality Reduction and Visualization of Bharatanatyam Mudras

Cultural dances are practiced all over the world. The study of various gestures of the performer using computer vision techniques can help in better understanding of these dance forms and for annotation purposes. Bharatanatyam is a classical dance that originated in South India. Bharatanatyam performer uses hand gestures (mudras), facial expressions and body movements to communicate to the audience the intended meaning. According to Natyashastra, a classical text on Indian dance, there are 28 Asamyukta Hastas (single-hand gestures) and 23 Samyukta Hastas (Double-hand gestures) in Bharatanatyam. Open datasets on Bharatanatyam dance gestures are not presently available. An exhaustive open dataset comprising of various mudras in Bharatanatyam was created. The dataset consists of 15[Formula: see text]396 distinct single-hand mudra images and 13[Formula: see text]035 distinct double-hand mudra images. In this paper, we explore the dataset using various multidimensional visualization techniques. PCA, Kernel PCA, Local Linear Embedding, Multidimensional Scaling, Isomap, t-SNE and PCA–t-SNE combination are being investigated. The best visualization for exploration of the dataset is obtained using PCA–t-SNE combination.

Thinking Minds, Virtual Bodies

With the emergence of the pandemic, the world adapted virtually; dance education and performance were no exception. Particularly, Indian classical dance (ICD) education and practice garnered mixed reactions due to the deviations from the intimate personified practices which are inherent in the traditional ICD system. Therefore, certain changes in the system became mandatory. With reference to the ideal tenets of arts pedagogy as mentioned in the ancient performing arts treatise Natyashastra, this paper provides specific significant methodologies which can benefit the knowledge exchange process in ICD especially in the online environment. Derived from the training in the sciences, this paper is an attempt to inform the virtual ICD scenario regarding complementation of and improvements in the traditional ways of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. These ways will appreciably enrich the desired purposes of the “felt” and “embodied” which may have been lost with the shift to the virtual scenario.

A Critique of Gender Roles in Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man

Bharatanatyam is an ancient Indian classical dance form that originated from Tamil Nadu. It was performed by devadasis (prostitutes) in royal courts in the early period. Later, the elite Indian class separates it from devadasis and makes it more like a commodity. A man’s passion towards such kind of an art form creates commotion in a patriarchal society. His manhood is questioned and he is considered as inferior to the exaggerated version of masculinity. The breaking of particular roles which are destined to each gender in a society leads to tension within the patriarchy. Mahesh Dattani’s play Dance Like a Man explores themes like gender discrimination, stereotyping, gender roles and identity crisis. In reality, the problems of men due to gender discrimination is not discussed effectively. This play tries to give a clear picture of a male victim of gender discrimination through Jairaj’s character. The current research explores the problems in reversing gender roles, question on masculinity and involvement of society in carrying gender stereotypes as portrayed in Dance Like a Man.

INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI TSISKARIDZE — A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR CULTURE AND ART UNDER THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, RECTOR OF THE VAGANOVA ACADEMY OF RUSSIAN BALLET

Traditionally, our journal opens with an academic interview. In this issue, we present an outstanding figure of world culture — Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a member of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation, National Artist of Russia, Rector of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. His charismatic image personifies the Russian ballet school. It is universally recognised that Tsiskaridze’s creative and pedagogical activity has given a new impetus to the school of classical dance. Thanks to his efforts, the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet has rightfully taken a leading place on the world stage and is highly regarded by the professional community. Nikolai Tsiskaridze kindly agreed to answer the questions of Maria Burganova, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Burganov House. Space of Culture. INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI TSISKARIDZE — A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR CULTURE AND ART UNDER THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, RECTOR OF THE VAGANOVA ACADEMY OF RUSSIAN BALLET Maria A. Burganova: What defines contemporary culture in Russia? Dialogue with the past, search for innovations, an expectation of change? Nikolai M. Tsiskaridze: Everything listed by you. And also, the rapid development of the culture of consumerism. M.B.: Are culture and the state interrelated concepts? To what extent does the state determine the development of culture? Can culture exist without government support? N.Ts.: At all times, culture could not exist without state support; therefore, of course, these concepts are interrelated. M.B.: The cultural space is a dialogue space. The audience creates it jointly with an artist, an actor, a musician. Today it seems that the viewer comes to the theatre, museum, philharmonic “to have a rest”. Who is an ideal viewer? What would you like to communicate to them? To what extent does the creative process take the possible reaction of the viewer into account? N.Ts.: There can be no dialogue. There is an artist, and there is the viewer’s perception of them. Any cultural space — theatre, museum, and so on, has always been a space for relaxation. When they say that the viewer also “works”, “creates” — it is nonsense. M.B.: The modern cultural space is permeated with Internet culture. How does this relate to classical heritage and education? Has a new cultural myth been formed? N.Ts.: The Internet is just a form of expression. M.B.: Virtuality is fully capturing museums and theatres. Exhibitions based on media technologies have become commonplace. In theatres, laptops broadcasting monologues and stage performances appear instead of actors. Is this a farce or a new reality in art? Is there a border in the cultural space which virtual technologies cannot cross? N.Ts.: Some people like butter, and some like margarine. If a person loves margarine, then they will use it. If someone wants to use a laptop, they will use a laptop. Whoever wants to see an artist will come to the artist.

Kathakali face expression detection using deep learning techniques

To develop a Deep Learning algorithm that detects the Kathakali face expression (or Navarasas) from a given image of a person who performs Kathakali. One of India’s major classical dance forms is Kathakali. It is a “story play” genre of art, but one distinguished by the traditional male-actor-dancers costumes, face masks and makeup they wear. In the Southern region of India, Kathakali is a Hindu performance art in Malayalam speaking. Most of the plays are epic scenes of Mahabharata and Ramayana. A lot of foreigners visiting India are inspired by this art form and have been curious about the culture. It is still used for entertainment as a part of tourism and temple rituals. An understanding of facial expressions are essential so as to enjoy the play. The scope of the paper is to identify the facial expressions of Kathakali to have a better understanding of the art play. In this paper, Machine Learning and Image Processing techniques are used to decode the expressions. Kathakali face expressions are nine types namely-Adbhutam (wonder), Hasyam (comic), Sringaram(love), Bheebatsam(repulsion), Bhayanakam(fear), Roudram(anger), Veeram(pride), Karunam(sympathy) and Shantham (peace). These Expressions are mapped to real world human emotions for better classification through face detection and extraction to achieve the same. Similarly a lot of research in terms of Preprocessing and Classification is done to achieve the maximum accuracy. Using CNN algorithm 90% of the accuracy was achieved. In order to conserve the pixel distribution and as no preprocessing was used for better object recognition and analysis Fuzzy algorithm is taken into consideration. Using this preprocessing technique 93% accuracy was achieved.

A comparative assessment of flexibility of backline and strength of lower limb in bharatnatyam dancers and non-dancers

Background: Bharatnatyam is an Indian classical dance form which have been practiced for a long period of time and is equivalent to any sporting activity. The postures attained during this dance form require good amount of muscle strength and flexibility among the dancers. There is lack of research on flexibility of backline and lower limb strength in bharatnatyam dancers. The overall function of the superficial backline is to support the body in full upright extension and impacts musculoskeletal dynamics. The lumbar lordosis angle and the pelvic inclination angle in bharatnatyam dancers is more than the non-dancers which can affect the backline flexibility. This study analysed if there is any difference, in the lower limb strength and flexibility of backline as compared to participants of same age group.Methods: 10 bharatnatyam dancers and 10 non-dancers between 15 to 30 years participated in this study. Triple hop distance test for both sides and toe touch test was used to check the strength of lower limb and flexibility of backline respectively.Results: There was significant difference in the triple hop distance of right lower limb between bharatnataym dancers and non-dancers. There was no significant difference in the triple hop distance of left lower limb between the two groups. There was not quite significant difference in the toe touch test of between the two groups.Conclusions: There was significant difference in the strength and power of right lower limb of dancers as compared to right lower limb of non-dancers. There was no statistical difference in the left lower limb of both the groups. There was no statistical difference between the flexibility of backline of bharatnatyam dancers and non-dancers.

Quantitative Visualization Analysis in the Field of Sports Dance Based on CiteSpace

Taking 266 CSSCI records of sports dance from CNKI database as the research object, the relevant data were analyzed by CiteSpace software. By means of knowledge map, this paper combs the number of papers, high-yield institutions, high-yield authors, cooperation and research hotspots. This study draws the following conclusions, which are divided into three time periods according to the amount of documents issued; The cooperation between the authors is scattered, and the representatives are mainly concentrated in Beijing Sports University; The distribution of research institutions is scattered and the cluster scale is small; The keywords are clustered into nine cluster labels. Through sorting and summarizing, the nine clusters are summarized into six aspects: the development of sports dance, the development of sports dance in China’s mass sports, sports dance teaching, the cultural integration of national standard dance and Chinese classical dance, the aesthetic value of sports dance, and the impact of sports dance on College Students’ physical and mental health.

The quest of finding the self in the Bedhaya: Unravelling the psychological significance of the Javanese sacred dance

The Bedhaya is the avant-garde of Yogyakarta and Surakarta (Java, Indonesia) court dance. This classical dance replete with Javanese symbols, spirituality and cultural values embedded in its aesthetic elements. Furthermore, the Bedhaya was created not for entertainment but rather as a meditative medium that would allow individuals to gain wisdom and higher consciousness. These noble characteristics of the dance suggest that the Bedhaya has psychological purposes for the performers and the spectators. We may gain insight into the process of attaining mental growth through studying the embodied wisdom and aesthetic ideal of the Bedhaya, which reflects the development of the human’s psyche. Therefore, the author proposes an interpretation of Bedhaya’s underlying symbolism, aesthetic experience, and potential as means of psychological growth. The paper’s primary argument is delivered by studying a set of theoretical ideas that present Bedhaya as a distinguished aesthetic with psychological capacities. Further, art as an embodiment of cultural wisdom and ethics is also discussed by connecting Bedhaya and other artistic forms drawn from varied cultures.