DANCE IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING, BUT . . .

Take No Liberties, Please !

You must sing only in key. You must dance only in rhythm.

What is provocative about these statements? Nothing. They are basic exhortations about-primary requirements: without maintaining a key, it would not be singing and it can't be dance without rhythm. I am of course referring only to our classical art-forms, in which a sloka, an alapana are the exceptions that are sung without keeping a basic beat.

Experiments in music and dance, with some Indian quotient in it, have been current for the past few decades. These might have passages of toneless singing or a-rhythmic dance. But such novelties remain one-time creations. They do not, in fact, cannot leave behind a grammar by which other compositions, choreographies may come into being.