A object that i really gazed at in my fieldwork are the Tabla drums. Tabla drums are a popular Indian musical instrument. Tablas were invented in India. Tablas were developed as a drum in the sixth-seventh century in a temple in India called Muktesvara.This instrument can be used in Hindu classical music or in dance. You need to use both of your hands when playing the tabla. The word tabla came from an Arabic word called Tabl, which means drums. When playing the tabla, it involves the use of your fingers and the palms in various ways to create a wide variety of different sounds. The heel of the hand is used to apply pressure or sliding motion on the larger drums so, the pitch is changed during when sounds would transfer to the smaller drum.
When someone plays the tabla, you can see and hear how well they keep a beat with a song .It takes a lot of practice to play the tabla. However, it becomes easy when you know how to play tablas and also go with the beat and rhythm. I am familiar with this instrument because i have danced with tablas. Most of the dance music main rhythm came from the Tablas. I also am familiar with tablas is when i go to the temple. The temple would have someone play tablas while the temple are sings the religious prayers. I chose this object because Tablas are my favorite Indian musical instrument and i have also grown up with listening tabla music. This object teaches a lot of what Bharatnatyam would dance to. This instrument helps the dancer on the beat, if the dancer is off the beat, then the dancer would mess up in the entire song. From my experience dancing with the sounds of tablas was challenging at first but afterwards I got used to going with the beat and sounds of the tablas, because tablas overall make the sound and tempo of a song that a Bharatnatyam dancer would do.
In the dance music there are drums playing. However when you graduate then you will have the drums and also other instruments are playing the music for you when you are dancing for your graduation.
Ghungroos is something I don’t leave at home when i have to perform. Ghungroos are musical anklets tied to the feet of classical dancers. When dancing with ghungroos, the sound of the ghungroos vary the pitch, depending on the rhythm of the music. A string of ghungroos can have fifty to two hundred bells woven together. A young dancer may start with fifty bells, and slowly add more bells as she gets older and advances in dancing. Ghungroos are really important to me. The ghungroos help me let the audience hear my beats while i am dancing.
When putting on a dance costume, makes me feel like a professional Bharatanatyam dancer. The dance costume that Bharatanatyam dancers wear are the skirt Saree. The Saree cloth are made of different colors of silk with gold border design. The pleats in Bharatanatyam opens when the dancer forms a dance pose or posture.
The dance jewelry brings out the beauty of the dance outfit. Bharatnatyam dancers wears a particular set of jewelry, known as the temple jewelry during a performance. the temple jewelry consists of the long necklace. the short necklace, belt. nose ring, earrings, bangles, head piece, moon and star. However, when I first put the jewelry I felt like I am a bharatanatyam dancer. I was very excited being covered with jewelry. However, the only bad thing about wearing the dance jewelry, you need to put the jewelry on tight so when you have to perform, you don’t want your jewelry to fall down when you are performing.
