Yakshagana is a symphony of storytelling, music, dance, and vibrant costumes, bringing to life the epic tales from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Here at Yakshadegula, we are always working to bring Yakshagana to today’s generation. In this effort, we posed to ourselves a question: can technology bridge the gap and rekindle interest among younger generations?
Thus, entered Scratch, a playful, visual coding platform with an aspiration to create an engaging digital experience of Yakshagana. Imagine students programming their own digital Yakshagana performances—syncing movements to rhythmic beats, animating expressive gestures, and crafting vibrant story sequences—all while learning the nuances of a not so popular art form.
This series of blogs will detail out how we went about this.
The Creative Process: Breaking Down Yakshagana for Scratch
With the goal of bringing Yakshagana to non-dancers and children, we went to identify the building blocks of Yakshagana. This required us to observe and document various Yakshagana performances, interview Yakshagana performers and converse with the Yakshagana teacher to understand the making of a Yakshagana performance and the performer.
This gave us the following elements::
Make-Up: The use of facial paint and costumes
Music: The rhythmic beats that define the performance.
Backdrop: The stage setting that transports audiences into mythical worlds.
Steps: The powerful footwork and gestures that tell the story.
Expressions: The facial movements that add depth to the characters.
Designing the Curriculum: Bringing Yakshagana to Code
Next task at hand was to convert this into doable activities that help students understand and recreate the Yakshagana experience.
We broke this down to the following activities giving students a very introductory understanding of the art form.
Creating the Sprite: Students design a Yakshagana-inspired character, learning about its traditional costume and appearance before importing it into Scratch.
Animating Facial Expressions: Through coding, students make their sprite exhibit emotions like joy, anger, and surprise, reflecting the expressive nature of Yakshagana performers.
Choreographing a Dance Move: Students create and program dance steps like jumping or spinning, bringing their sprite to life with authentic Yakshagana movements.
Designing a Stage Setup: Using Scratch’s backdrop and sprite features, students construct a digital Yakshagana stage, complete with props and scene transitions.
Beyond the Code: Why This Matters
This integration of coding and culture fosters artistic expression while deepening appreciation of the intricacies of rhythm, movement, and storytelling in traditional arts.
Read our next blog to dive into the pilot phase, capturing students’ responses, challenges, and innovations.
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