Masterclass by by Piyal Bhattacharya

Orchestrating Stillness and Movement: Sthāna, Gati, and the Dynamic Function of Cārīs in the Dancer-Actor’s Training

This workshop investigates Sthāna and Gati as foundational conditions of the performing body, with particular focus on the dynamic role of Cārīs in shaping the dancer-actor’s psychophysical presence. Sthāna is approached not merely as physical stillness but as the base of the character. Just as every structure demands a different foundation—a temple, a warehouse, an auditorium, or a living space cannot stand upon the same base—every character requires a distinct corporeal ground. The quality of this base determines posture, gravity, alignment, and inner disposition. Sthāna thus becomes the architectural ground of performance. From this ground, Gati unfolds as vistāra, the expansion of being into space and time. Cārīs operate as kinetic bridges between stillness and movement, enabling continuity, spatial intelligence, and organic transition.

The workshop further situates the performing body within a deeper continuum of consciousness and breath. According to yogic and Ayurvedic traditions, at conception consciousness (vijñāna) enters the forming body through prāṇa. As development progresses, this unified prāṇa differentiates into apāna, udāna, samāna, and vyāna, and further into the subsidiary vāyus—Nāga, Kūrma, Kṛkala, Devadatta, and Dhanañjaya. With each division, inner wholeness becomes increasingly fragmented, and being is gradually concealed behind behaving.

Performance training, in this understanding, becomes a meditative process of reintegration, guiding these vāyus toward unison and allowing central flow through the suṣumṇā. This principle is reflected in hasta–pāda–samāyogat, where harmony between upper and lower limbs mirrors inner coherence. Within this framework, Sthāna becomes the site of inner settling, Gati the revelation of inner expansion, and Cārīs the channels through which inner unity is expressed. Movement thus arises not as technique alone, but as embodied consciousness in motion.

A scholar of the Natyashastra, Piyal Bhattacharya has been working on the practical reconstruction of Bharata’s text. The main aim of this research is to dig up the long-lost performance tradition described in the Natyashastra in totality. He has studied the Saraswati veena, pakhawaj, pung achoba, miravu, and dhrupad and rudra veena of the Dagar gharana under Asit Banerjee. As part of his research to trace the migration of the ancient Indian harp system to Myanmar, he even travelled to the country to learn the traditional Burmese harp.

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