By Shannon Barry

courtesy of SANKARA FOUNDATION The Articulate dance team of India performed at Foothill College last Saturday. Some troupe members are clinically blind.

When the Articulate dance team of India performed at Foothill College Sept. 15, five members of the troupe shared more than a passion for dance - they are clinically blind.

The San Jose-based Sankara Eye Foundation, USA (SEF), a non-profit organization with the goal of eradicating curable blindness in India by 2020, sponsored the performance, which featured classical Indian dance styles. According to the World Health Organization, India is home to more than one-fifth of the world’s blind population, an estimated 15 million people.

Murali Krishnamurthy, chairman and founder of SEF, said the collaboration between Articulate and SEF was a natural one.

Members of SEF saw the Articulate team dance at a convention in Detroit. The performance impressed Krishnamurthy, who thought it would fit well with SEF’s efforts to raise public awareness.

Mysore B. Nagaraj, choreographer and dancer for Articulate, said the team, formed five years ago, “has taken the visually challenged artist brethren under their care the past two years.” Some members of the group have known each other for a decade.

Buse Gowda, one of the visually impaired members of the troupe, created a “touch, feel, do” methodology for training the blind dancers.

“Since dance was a visual medium, and the aspirants of dance were blind, Gowda started to touch the teacher, feel the movement and did the action as he felt, which the teacher corrected and fine-tuned,” Nagaraj said.

Nagaraj said the “touch, feel, do” technique enables the team to perform traditional Indian dance forms, including Bharathanatya, Kuchipudi, Yakshagana, Kathak and Perini, enhanced by colorful costumes.

He said the concept for the troupe’s production of “Panchavaktram,” the lord of five elements, was inspired by a Purdue University study on sonoluminescence, the production of light from sound.

The study reminded Nagaraj of the story of Lord Shiva, who created the elements of earth, water, fire, air and space in his five manifestations. According to Hindu scripture, Lord Shiva then shook his kettle drum, or “damaru,” and set the sound waves toward the elements, which fused and exploded into a high-energy luminescence similar to the sun. From this act resulted the creation of the universe and the subsequent evolution of man.

Inspired by Hindu scripture, “The visually challenged (have) been trained to do the specific ritual of theater and the dance of the elements earth, water, fire, air and space in this ballet,” Nagaraj said.

Nagaraj said Articulate’s performances are important because people should be aware of how the visually challenged can confront and overcome their disabilities and lead normal lives with social acceptance.

“How they use their remaining faculties is a possibility, and that’s what we want to show,” he said. “If people have a dream to do it, despite the disabilities they face, you can, (too).”

For more information about the Articulate dance team, visit www.artticulateindia.com. For more information about SEF, visit www.giftofvision.org.