[Sw-l] Sutton DanceWriting: Na ṭarāja

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
August 6, 2021

Hello SW List members, and Sutthikhun (Ae)!

THANK YOU for this remarkable DanceWriting of the dancer Shiva, which has four arms and three eyes! That is something new to write, and I think you did a great job. I look forward to really studying how you chose to write a person with more arms and eyes than usual. And I also look forward to posting your work, and other DanceWriting and SignWriting that you have written, on our web sites.

This morning I am meeting with a teacher from Brazil, on Zoom. It is such a pleasure that we can have one-on-one meetings together online, privately, and now that there are three software programs that provide Live Subtitles, or captions, while we speak to each other online, we can almost manage without interpreters. Of course we all look forward to the day when we can write those Live Subtitles in sign languages with SignWriting, and maybe that day is coming sooner than we can predict, and I thank all those working on this issue right now. But for the moment, with the Live spoken language captions, in several languages, we are managing the best we can.

If anyone here on the SignWriting List wishes to speak with me personally, and you are a member of this List, we can schedule an appointment to meet online. Write to me privately at sutton at signwriting.org, to setup an appointment. If you can provide interpreters of course that will be wonderful too. But otherwise we can try to manage. At least we can smile at each other, and that will be a treasured memory ;-)

So again, Ae, thank you for this posting and I am attempting to get back to working more soon!

Val ;-)

———————


> On Aug 5, 2021, at 1:31 PM, Sutthikhun Phaengphongsai <suttikunep at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello SW List members, 
> 
> I assume some of you saw my latest DanceWriting work that I uploaded on the Sutton SignWriting Facebook group. On the recommendation of Valerie, the inventor of both SW and DW, I will also submit this work to both the FB group and the SW List. ;)
> 
> Introduction
> The dancer, Shiva: the Lord of Dancers in Hinduism, has four arms and three eyes, as well as symbolisms held on his hands and stepped with his foot. As a result, a typical human dancer with only two arms and two eyes would be unable to perform this kind of dancing, Ananda Tandava, precisely with the Lord Shiva. Writing Shiva's dance motions in numerous DW/SW symbols is therefore truly fascinating, since it can be observed that only one step of dance has up to four different hand gestures and one third-eye.
> 
> Description
> Naṭarāja / நடராஜர் / नटराज / Lord of Dancers
> Transcribed on 05 Aug 2021 by Sutthikhun Phaengphongsai
> Shiva performs the Ananda Tandava (dance of bliss), the dance in which the universe is created, maintained, and dissolved.
> 
> Hands
> The upper right hand holds a small drum. A specific hand gesture is used to hold the drum. It symbolizes rhythm and time.
> The upper left hand contains fire, which signifies forces of creation and destruction. The opposing concepts show the counterpoise nature of life.
> The lower left hand is bent downwards at the wrist with the palm facing inward, and also noted that this arm crosses his chest, concealing his heart from view. It represents “occlusion, concealment.”
> Legs
> His legs are bent, which suggests an energetic dance.
> The demon dwarf upon whom Nataraja dances is the demon Apasmara purusha, and who symbolizes the demonic evil and ignorance over which the sacred dance of Shiva gives victory.
> Face
> The face shows two eyes plus a slightly open third on the forehead, which symbolize the triune in Shaivism. The eyes represent the sun, the moon and the third has been interpreted as the inner eye, or symbol of knowledge, urging the viewer to seek inner wisdom, self-realization.
> The slightly smiling face of Shiva represents his calmness despite being immersed in the contrasting forces of the universe and his energetic dance.
> References
> Nataraja. English Wikipedia. (2021). Retrieved 6 August 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja>.
> Sutton, V. (1979). Dance writing for modern and jazz dance. Sutton Movement Writing Press.
> Sutton, V., & Frost, A. (2011). SignWriting hand symbols (1st ed.). The SignWriting Press.
> Thanks for your interest, 
> 
> Sutthikhun (Ae)
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________
> 
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> 
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________________________________________________


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