In my paper I will focus on the analysis of the dance training under the hereditary South Indian master V. S. Muthuswamy Pillai (1918-1992). According to his traditional method of teaching the pupil, since the beginning of the learning process, was instructed to link the dance practice with the sisters-arts of acting, music, poetry, sculpture and painting. In my presentation I will show how the teacher insisted that the dance students should learn the principles of those related artistic forms in order to better understand and master the technical basis and the aesthetic and expressive aspects of the dance itself. I will also demonstrate how such type of transmission was part of an older paedagogic system, the traces of which are found in both literary and visual arts sources.
Tiziana Leucci