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A Time to Dance | Padma Venkatraman | India | Penguin young Readers | 2014 | ISBN:
Synopsis:
Just after winning her first award for the classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, Veda is in a terrible accident which results in the loss of one of her legs. Rather than accept the limitations of her missing limb, Veda decides she is going to dance again. With support from friends, family and a wonderful doctor, Veda takes her new prosthetic limb and learns again how to dance. Through this dance of Shiva, she finds her faith, love and she draws closer to the people around her. Veda’s determination and strength of spirit are inspirational even while Veda shows she is very human and flawed teenager.
Honors and Awards:
- Kirkus, Starred review- Best Fiction Book of 2014
- South Asia Book Award - 2014
- Booklist, Starred review- Booklist’s Top 10 Art Book
- VOYA, Starred review
- School Library Journal- Starred review
- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books -Starred review
- ALA Notable
- ALA/YALSA BBYA, CSML Best Book
- IBBY (International Board of Books for Young People) Outstanding Book for young people with disabilities
- IRA Notable NGBS
Rationale:
Why use this book in an English or World Studies Classroom?
“Loosely based on inspiring stories of a few differently-abled dancers, A TIME TO DANCE is a novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, love and resilience of the human spirit.
Thus, A TIME TO DANCE addresses these themes:
1. Read Walt Whitman’s Proud Music of the Storm. (See appendix 1) How does he approach and express the themes of spiritual bliss attained through dance?
2. Read about one of the survivors of the Boston Marathon attack and her return to dance. http://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance See Appendix 3
3. Discuss the word “survivors” and the mental and emotional images brought to mind by that word.
See the following PPT for the background on the book, http://padmasbooks.com/resources/HansonKernVenkatraman.pdf
Building prior knowledge: see the table of hyperlinks for more resources
During Reading Activities:
Discussion Questions: The discussion questions are broken down into four sections to facilitate the use of the questions when they are most closely tied to the specific sections of the book.
Pre-Accident
1. As Veda’s story begins (in the Prologue, “Temple of the Dancing God”) what details of time, place and voice help orient the reader to the narrator and the setting of the story?
2. How do Veda’s descriptions and actions in the Temple of the Dancing God introduce the reader to her relationship with dance? How do Veda’s reflections, dialogue and actions in the verse Hoping and Waiting establish the characters of Paati, Ma and Pa? How does dialogue develop their characters and conflicts?
3. What are some of the factors that guided Veda toward dance from a very early age?
4. Why does Veda feel torn about her desire to dance when she considers her parents’ plans for her?
5. Veda’s father and grandmother support her dance talent right from the start. Veda’s mother does not. How might this affect the family dynamics? Use descriptions of family interactions to explain your answers.
6. Throughout the novel, how does the spare dialogue develop the characters and their conflicts?
7. In the poem “Time” how is Veda’s shift of thought from the present to the past signaled? How does the brief flashback reiterate her passion for her art and reinforce aspects of her character and the characters of Shobana and Mrs. Subramaniam and Veda’s relationship with them?
The Accident
8. What words, phrases, comparisons, details and aspects of sensory language help express Veda’s various emotional states in the verse Speed?
9. How does Veda’s experience of winning an important dance competition help build toward her intense shock after the accident? If the story had begun with the verse Waking (instead of starting with Veda’s narration of earlier events) might a reader have felt the same level of empathy for her loss?
Immediately After the Accident
10. What small and large hurdles does Veda have to overcome after her accident? Which of these hurdles are explicitly shown in the text and which of the hurdles can you infer from the text?
11. Veda remarks that Jim’s politically correct words help lessen her pain in a small way. What does his choice of words reveal about his character? To what extent do you think it matters to use politically correct terms when we speak?
12.Veda’s point of view differs from her care-givers’ points of view during several situations that arise in the hospital, at the bus stop and at school. Cite places in the text where Veda’s ironic/sarcastic comments and wry sense of humor help alleviate her pain mentally, if not physically.
Later Recovery
13. How does Veda’s passion for dance deepen and change after she acquires a new teacher?
14. How does Veda’s role as a teacher help her grow? What role do her students play in helping her learn?
15. When Veda meets Kamini for the last time in the novel, Veda suggests that the accident actually helped her grow. Cite specific places in the text where Veda seems to feel this way, and what aspects of growth she attributes to the loss of her limb. What are some other places in the text where you might infer that she overcomes challenges that shape and strengthen her personality, although this is not explicitly stated?
16. Compare Veda’s stage performance before her accident with the scene in which she dances alone beneath the banyan tree and in the final scene of the novel. What words and phrases in the text show the change in Veda’s attitude to dance?
17. How do you think Veda’s character changes as the story progressed? What actions does she take that indicate she is growing less self-centered? How do you think Veda’s personal growth contributes to her deepening understanding of dance?
After Reading Activities:
1. Conduct a short research project to discover and briefly describe a few dance traditions from parts of the world other than India. Compare these forms of dance and generate your own related questions on dance (modern and contemporary) the world over.
2. Veda’s story is inspired by true stories of differently-abled dancers. Research the life story of a differently-abled person who, like Veda, overcame hurdles to accomplish his/her goal. Compare and contrast this person’s experiences with the turning points in Veda’s story. How are this person’s emotions similar to or different from Veda’s feelings? Did this person undergo any change in attitude that parallels the growth in Veda’s character? Substantiate your answers with quotations, provide a list of references (print and digital), and justify how you assessed the credibility of the references you cited.
3. Compare and contrast Russell Freedman’s biography of Martha Graham with A TIME TO DANCE in terms of how each work approaches the following related themes: a young woman’s passion for dance; overcoming hurdles to become an exceptional dancer; obsession with awards/recognition versus inner spiritual growth through art; pushing one’s creative artistic expression through dance.
4. How do events and themes in A TIME TO DANCE reflect the Biblical philosophy expressed in Ecclesiastes of a ‘time for every purpose under heaven’?
5. How does Veda’s story in A TIME TO DANCE, set in contemporary India, draw on themes and characters from Indian tradition as well as India’s religious history, symbolism and mythology? What are some similarities and differences between your spiritual/philosophical/religious outlook and Veda’s?
6. Do you have or do you know someone who is differently abled? What challenges do they face on a daily basis? Imagine how your school day and routine might change if you were physically disabled. Write about this situation, paying attention to small details.
Using Video as a Primary Source
Clayton Bates dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayM4B7hcBQ
Adrianne Haslet-Davis dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQVO6Wi_7c8
7. How is Veda’s style of dancing different from that of Peg Leg Bates and Adrianne Haslet-Davis?
8. What do the Bates and Davis videos convey about dancing with a disability? Do you think it was important for the dancers to show that disability doesn’t prevent them from dancing?
9. When and where in A TIME TO DANCE does Veda become as comfortable with her disability as these dancers? What does she do/say that shows her love for dance? Cite textual evidence.
10. How does the power of her art help Veda overcome disability?
Recommended Resources:
Bharatanatyam dance
http://www.britannica.com/art/bharata-natyam
http://www.artindia.net/bharata.html
http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-dance/classical/bharatnatyam.html
Indian clothing
http://www.indianmirror.com/culture/clothing/clothing.html
The red dot
http://www.proudhindu.org/hinduism/why-do-many-hindus-wear-a-dot-near-the-middle-of-their-forehead
Printable discussion guide
http://padmasbooks.com/resources/ATimeToDanceDGbw.pdf
This book could be co-taught with physical education and music areas. It could also be used in a class on cultures and social issues around the world.
Appendix 1:
PROUD music of the storm!
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies!
Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains!
Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras!
You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert,
Blending, with Nature's rhythmus, all the tongues of nations;
You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses!
You formless, free, religious dances! you from the Orient!
You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts;
You sounds from distant guns, with galloping cavalry! 10
Echoes of camps, with all the different bugle-calls!
Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless,
Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber--Why have you seiz'd me?
Come forward, O my Soul, and let the rest retire;
Listen--lose not--it is toward thee they tend;
Parting the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber,
For thee they sing and dance, O Soul.
A festival song!
The duet of the bridegroom and the bride--a marriage-march,
With lips of love, and hearts of lovers, fill'd to the brim with
love; 20
The red-flush'd cheeks, and perfumes--the cortege swarming, full of
friendly faces, young and old,
To flutes' clear notes, and sounding harps' cantabile.
Now loud approaching drums!
Victoria! see'st thou in powder-smoke the banners torn but flying?
the rout of the baffled?
Hearest those shouts of a conquering army?
(Ah, Soul, the sobs of women--the wounded groaning in agony,
The hiss and crackle of flames--the blacken'd ruins--the embers of
cities,
The dirge and desolation of mankind.)
Now airs antique and medieval fill me!
I see and hear old harpers with their harps, at Welsh festivals: 30
I hear the minnesingers, singing their lays of love,
I hear the minstrels, gleemen, troubadours, of the feudal ages.
Now the great organ sounds,
Tremulous--while underneath, (as the hid footholds of the earth,
On which arising, rest, and leaping forth, depend,
All shapes of beauty, grace and strength--all hues we know,
Green blades of grass, and warbling birds--children that gambol and
play--the clouds of heaven above,)
The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not,
Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest--maternity of all the rest;
And with it every instrument in multitudes, 40
The players playing--all the world's musicians,
The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration,
All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals,
The measureless sweet vocalists of ages,
And for their solvent setting, Earth's own diapason,
Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves;
A new composite orchestra--binder of years and climes--ten-fold
renewer,
As of the far-back days the poets tell--the Paradiso,
The straying thence, the separation long, but now the wandering done,
The journey done, the Journeyman come home, 50
And Man and Art, with Nature fused again.
Tutti! for Earth and Heaven!
The Almighty Leader now for me, for once has signal'd with his wand.
The manly strophe of the husbands of the world,
And all the wives responding.
The tongues of violins!
(I think, O tongues, ye tell this heart, that cannot tell itself;
This brooding, yearning heart, that cannot tell itself.)
Ah, from a little child,
Thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music; 60
My mother's voice, in lullaby or hymn;
(The voice--O tender voices--memory's loving voices!
Last miracle of all--O dearest mother's, sister's, voices;)
The rain, the growing corn, the breeze among the long-leav'd corn,
The measur'd sea-surf, beating on the sand,
The twittering bird, the hawk's sharp scream,
The wild-fowl's notes at night, as flying low, migrating north or
south,
The psalm in the country church, or mid the clustering trees, the
open air camp-meeting,
The fiddler in the tavern--the glee, the long-strung sailor-song,
The lowing cattle, bleating sheep--the crowing cock at dawn. 70
All songs of current lands come sounding 'round me,
The German airs of friendship, wine and love,
Irish ballads, merry jigs and dances--English warbles,
Chansons of France, Scotch tunes--and o'er the rest,
Italia's peerless compositions.
Across the stage, with pallor on her face, yet lurid passion,
Stalks Norma, brandishing the dagger in her hand.
I see poor crazed Lucia's eyes' unnatural gleam;
Her hair down her back falls loose and dishevell'd.
I see where Ernani, walking the bridal garden, 80
Amid the scent of night-roses, radiant, holding his bride by the
hand,
Hears the infernal call, the death-pledge of the horn.
To crossing swords, and grey hairs bared to heaven,
The clear, electric base and baritone of the world,
The trombone duo--Libertad forever!
From Spanish chestnut trees' dense shade,
By old and heavy convent walls, a wailing song,
Song of lost love--the torch of youth and life quench'd in despair,
Song of the dying swan--Fernando's heart is breaking.
Awaking from her woes at last, retriev'd Amina sings; 90
Copious as stars, and glad as morning light, the torrents of her joy.
(The teeming lady comes!
The lustrious orb--Venus contralto--the blooming mother,
Sister of loftiest gods--Alboni's self I hear.)
I hear those odes, symphonies, operas;
I hear in the William Tell, the music of an arous'd and angry people;
I hear Meyerbeer's Huguenots, the Prophet, or Robert;
Gounod's Faust, or Mozart's Don Juan.
I hear the dance-music of all nations,
The waltz, (some delicious measure, lapsing, bathing me in
bliss;) 100
The bolero, to tinkling guitars and clattering castanets.
I see religious dances old and new,
I hear the sound of the Hebrew lyre,
I see the Crusaders marching, bearing the cross on high, to the
martial clang of cymbals;
I hear dervishes monotonously chanting, interspers'd with frantic
shouts, as they spin around, turning always towards Mecca;
I see the rapt religious dances of the Persians and the Arabs;
Again, at Eleusis, home of Ceres, I see the modern Greeks dancing,
I hear them clapping their hands, as they bend their bodies,
I hear the metrical shuffling of their feet.
I see again the wild old Corybantian dance, the performers wounding
each other; 110
I see the Roman youth, to the shrill sound of flageolets, throwing
and catching their weapons,
As they fall on their knees, and rise again.
I hear from the Mussulman mosque the muezzin calling;
I see the worshippers within, (nor form, nor sermon, argument, nor
word,
But silent, strange, devout--rais'd, glowing heads--extatic faces.)
I hear the Egyptian harp of many strings,
The primitive chants of the Nile boatmen;
The sacred imperial hymns of China,
To the delicate sounds of the king, (the stricken wood and stone;)
Or to Hindu flutes, and the fretting twang of the vina, 120
A band of bayaderes.
Now Asia, Africa leave me--Europe, seizing, inflates me;
To organs huge, and bands, I hear as from vast concourses of voices,
Luther's strong hymn, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott;
Rossini's Stabat Mater dolorosa;
Or, floating in some high cathedral dim, with gorgeous color'd
windows,
The passionate Agnus Dei, or Gloria in Excelsis.
Composers! mighty maestros!
And you, sweet singers of old lands--Soprani! Tenori! Bassi!
To you a new bard, carolling free in the west,
Obeisant, sends his love. 130
(Such led to thee, O Soul!
All senses, shows and objects, lead to thee,
But now, it seems to me, sound leads o'er all the rest.)
I hear the annual singing of the children in St. Paul's Cathedral;
Or, under the high roof of some colossal hall, the symphonies,
oratorios of Beethoven, Handel, or Haydn;
The Creation, in billows of godhood laves me.
Give me to hold all sounds, (I, madly struggling, cry,)
Fill me with all the voices of the universe,
Endow me with their throbbings--Nature's also,
The tempests, waters, winds--operas and chants--marches and
dances, 140
Utter--pour in--for I would take them all.
Then I woke softly,
And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream,
And questioning all those reminiscences--the tempest in its fury,
And all the songs of sopranos and tenors,
And those rapt oriental dances, of religious fervor,
And the sweet varied instruments, and the diapason of organs,
And all the artless plaints of love, and grief and death,
I said to my silent, curious Soul, out of the bed of the slumber-
chamber,
Come, for I have found the clue I sought so long, 150
Let us go forth refresh'd amid the day,
Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real,
Nourish'd henceforth by our celestial dream.
And I said, moreover,
Haply, what thou hast heard, O Soul, was not the sound of winds,
Nor dream of raging storm, nor sea-hawk's flapping wings, nor harsh
scream,
Nor vocalism of sun-bright Italy,
Nor German organ majestic--nor vast concourse of voices--nor layers
of harmonies;
Nor strophes of husbands and wives--nor sound of marching soldiers,
Nor flutes, nor harps, nor the bugle-calls of camps; 160
But, to a new rhythmus fitted for thee,
Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night
air, uncaught, unwritten,
Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write.
Walt Whitman
Appendix 2:
Marathon bombing survivor dances onstage at TED talk By Bella English | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 19, 2014 http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2014/03/19/marathonbombing-victim-adrianne-haslet-davis-dances-onstage-tedtalk/N7P3EF3zmrGXtE9brkndxN/story.html?p1=Article_Facet_Related_ Article
http://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance
Professional dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost her lower left leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, took to the stage Wednesday afternoon to do a short rhumba wearing a prosthetic leg made for her at the MIT Media Lab. Haslet-Davis, who has taught 20 different types of dance at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Boston, performed briefly at a TED Conference in Vancouver, B.C. Hugh Herr, director of biomechatronics at the Media Lab, was at the conference to explain the design of the leg, which he made with a team of scientists savvy in prosthetics, robotics, and biomechanics. Herr is a double amputee, resulting from a rock climbing accident in 1982. He first met Haslet-Davis at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and thought he could help. The dancer’s husband, Air Force Captain Adam Davis, suffered a cut nerve and artery in his left foot in the bombing and had a skin graft from his right thigh to repair his right foot, which was peppered with shrapnel. He had just returned to Boston two weeks earlier from a deployment in Afghanistan when the couple decided to spend a nice spring day watching the Boston Marathon.
After the TED performance, Haslet-Davis stood alongside dancer Christian Lightner and wiped away tears. “I’m thrilled to have danced again. It was invigorating to dance publicly with my new leg, but also to realize that my return to dance may have the power to inspire other people to reach for their goals and be proactive in their lives,” she said in a statement. “I was always determined to dance again, and I knew that I had to, that I would, and here I am. My first dance happening to be so near the anniversary of the marathon bombing stands as a reminder that I’m a survivor, not a victim.” The statement continued: “I want to thank the people of Boston for their incredible support on every day of my journey. And of course, I’d like to thank Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics group at The MIT Media Lab and founder of BIOM, for his determination to create the leg that allowed me to dance again, and to this amazing international conference, TED, for inviting Hugh to speak and me to dance.”
Appendix 3: CCSS Connections Addressed Through the Above Activities
Writing in History, Science, Technical Subjects / Reading Informational Texts
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.W & WHST.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Reading History/Social Studies
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RH.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-8.RH.5 Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, casually).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RH.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.11-12.RH.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. CCSS cross references for discussion questions (question numbers provided) Reading Literacy
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.1. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL. 4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.5 Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.6 Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
Writing CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context 12 and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 9. “Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics”. “Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history. “Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new”.
Why use this book in an English or World Studies Classroom?
“Loosely based on inspiring stories of a few differently-abled dancers, A TIME TO DANCE is a novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, love and resilience of the human spirit.
Thus, A TIME TO DANCE addresses these themes:
- differently-abled protagonists (disabled or handicapped were the terms used previously);
- diversity and multiculturalism (particularly the South Asian culture of India);
- dance, performing arts and the power of art (Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam);
- spiritual growth (although Veda's spiritual philosophy is universal acceptance, her understanding is through the framework of Hinduism and via dance as a means of deepening compassion and awakening to something larger than self-centeredness; paradoxically, Veda achieves stillness through movement).” (Venkatraman, A Time to Dance, 2016)
1. Read Walt Whitman’s Proud Music of the Storm. (See appendix 1) How does he approach and express the themes of spiritual bliss attained through dance?
2. Read about one of the survivors of the Boston Marathon attack and her return to dance. http://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance See Appendix 3
3. Discuss the word “survivors” and the mental and emotional images brought to mind by that word.
See the following PPT for the background on the book, http://padmasbooks.com/resources/HansonKernVenkatraman.pdf
Building prior knowledge: see the table of hyperlinks for more resources
During Reading Activities:
Discussion Questions: The discussion questions are broken down into four sections to facilitate the use of the questions when they are most closely tied to the specific sections of the book.
Pre-Accident
1. As Veda’s story begins (in the Prologue, “Temple of the Dancing God”) what details of time, place and voice help orient the reader to the narrator and the setting of the story?
2. How do Veda’s descriptions and actions in the Temple of the Dancing God introduce the reader to her relationship with dance? How do Veda’s reflections, dialogue and actions in the verse Hoping and Waiting establish the characters of Paati, Ma and Pa? How does dialogue develop their characters and conflicts?
3. What are some of the factors that guided Veda toward dance from a very early age?
4. Why does Veda feel torn about her desire to dance when she considers her parents’ plans for her?
5. Veda’s father and grandmother support her dance talent right from the start. Veda’s mother does not. How might this affect the family dynamics? Use descriptions of family interactions to explain your answers.
6. Throughout the novel, how does the spare dialogue develop the characters and their conflicts?
7. In the poem “Time” how is Veda’s shift of thought from the present to the past signaled? How does the brief flashback reiterate her passion for her art and reinforce aspects of her character and the characters of Shobana and Mrs. Subramaniam and Veda’s relationship with them?
The Accident
8. What words, phrases, comparisons, details and aspects of sensory language help express Veda’s various emotional states in the verse Speed?
9. How does Veda’s experience of winning an important dance competition help build toward her intense shock after the accident? If the story had begun with the verse Waking (instead of starting with Veda’s narration of earlier events) might a reader have felt the same level of empathy for her loss?
Immediately After the Accident
10. What small and large hurdles does Veda have to overcome after her accident? Which of these hurdles are explicitly shown in the text and which of the hurdles can you infer from the text?
11. Veda remarks that Jim’s politically correct words help lessen her pain in a small way. What does his choice of words reveal about his character? To what extent do you think it matters to use politically correct terms when we speak?
12.Veda’s point of view differs from her care-givers’ points of view during several situations that arise in the hospital, at the bus stop and at school. Cite places in the text where Veda’s ironic/sarcastic comments and wry sense of humor help alleviate her pain mentally, if not physically.
Later Recovery
13. How does Veda’s passion for dance deepen and change after she acquires a new teacher?
14. How does Veda’s role as a teacher help her grow? What role do her students play in helping her learn?
15. When Veda meets Kamini for the last time in the novel, Veda suggests that the accident actually helped her grow. Cite specific places in the text where Veda seems to feel this way, and what aspects of growth she attributes to the loss of her limb. What are some other places in the text where you might infer that she overcomes challenges that shape and strengthen her personality, although this is not explicitly stated?
16. Compare Veda’s stage performance before her accident with the scene in which she dances alone beneath the banyan tree and in the final scene of the novel. What words and phrases in the text show the change in Veda’s attitude to dance?
17. How do you think Veda’s character changes as the story progressed? What actions does she take that indicate she is growing less self-centered? How do you think Veda’s personal growth contributes to her deepening understanding of dance?
After Reading Activities:
1. Conduct a short research project to discover and briefly describe a few dance traditions from parts of the world other than India. Compare these forms of dance and generate your own related questions on dance (modern and contemporary) the world over.
2. Veda’s story is inspired by true stories of differently-abled dancers. Research the life story of a differently-abled person who, like Veda, overcame hurdles to accomplish his/her goal. Compare and contrast this person’s experiences with the turning points in Veda’s story. How are this person’s emotions similar to or different from Veda’s feelings? Did this person undergo any change in attitude that parallels the growth in Veda’s character? Substantiate your answers with quotations, provide a list of references (print and digital), and justify how you assessed the credibility of the references you cited.
3. Compare and contrast Russell Freedman’s biography of Martha Graham with A TIME TO DANCE in terms of how each work approaches the following related themes: a young woman’s passion for dance; overcoming hurdles to become an exceptional dancer; obsession with awards/recognition versus inner spiritual growth through art; pushing one’s creative artistic expression through dance.
4. How do events and themes in A TIME TO DANCE reflect the Biblical philosophy expressed in Ecclesiastes of a ‘time for every purpose under heaven’?
5. How does Veda’s story in A TIME TO DANCE, set in contemporary India, draw on themes and characters from Indian tradition as well as India’s religious history, symbolism and mythology? What are some similarities and differences between your spiritual/philosophical/religious outlook and Veda’s?
6. Do you have or do you know someone who is differently abled? What challenges do they face on a daily basis? Imagine how your school day and routine might change if you were physically disabled. Write about this situation, paying attention to small details.
Using Video as a Primary Source
Clayton Bates dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayM4B7hcBQ
Adrianne Haslet-Davis dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQVO6Wi_7c8
7. How is Veda’s style of dancing different from that of Peg Leg Bates and Adrianne Haslet-Davis?
8. What do the Bates and Davis videos convey about dancing with a disability? Do you think it was important for the dancers to show that disability doesn’t prevent them from dancing?
9. When and where in A TIME TO DANCE does Veda become as comfortable with her disability as these dancers? What does she do/say that shows her love for dance? Cite textual evidence.
10. How does the power of her art help Veda overcome disability?
Recommended Resources:
Bharatanatyam dance
http://www.britannica.com/art/bharata-natyam
http://www.artindia.net/bharata.html
http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-dance/classical/bharatnatyam.html
Indian clothing
http://www.indianmirror.com/culture/clothing/clothing.html
The red dot
http://www.proudhindu.org/hinduism/why-do-many-hindus-wear-a-dot-near-the-middle-of-their-forehead
Printable discussion guide
http://padmasbooks.com/resources/ATimeToDanceDGbw.pdf
This book could be co-taught with physical education and music areas. It could also be used in a class on cultures and social issues around the world.
Appendix 1:
PROUD music of the storm!
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies!
Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains!
Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras!
You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert,
Blending, with Nature's rhythmus, all the tongues of nations;
You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses!
You formless, free, religious dances! you from the Orient!
You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts;
You sounds from distant guns, with galloping cavalry! 10
Echoes of camps, with all the different bugle-calls!
Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless,
Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber--Why have you seiz'd me?
Come forward, O my Soul, and let the rest retire;
Listen--lose not--it is toward thee they tend;
Parting the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber,
For thee they sing and dance, O Soul.
A festival song!
The duet of the bridegroom and the bride--a marriage-march,
With lips of love, and hearts of lovers, fill'd to the brim with
love; 20
The red-flush'd cheeks, and perfumes--the cortege swarming, full of
friendly faces, young and old,
To flutes' clear notes, and sounding harps' cantabile.
Now loud approaching drums!
Victoria! see'st thou in powder-smoke the banners torn but flying?
the rout of the baffled?
Hearest those shouts of a conquering army?
(Ah, Soul, the sobs of women--the wounded groaning in agony,
The hiss and crackle of flames--the blacken'd ruins--the embers of
cities,
The dirge and desolation of mankind.)
Now airs antique and medieval fill me!
I see and hear old harpers with their harps, at Welsh festivals: 30
I hear the minnesingers, singing their lays of love,
I hear the minstrels, gleemen, troubadours, of the feudal ages.
Now the great organ sounds,
Tremulous--while underneath, (as the hid footholds of the earth,
On which arising, rest, and leaping forth, depend,
All shapes of beauty, grace and strength--all hues we know,
Green blades of grass, and warbling birds--children that gambol and
play--the clouds of heaven above,)
The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not,
Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest--maternity of all the rest;
And with it every instrument in multitudes, 40
The players playing--all the world's musicians,
The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration,
All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals,
The measureless sweet vocalists of ages,
And for their solvent setting, Earth's own diapason,
Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves;
A new composite orchestra--binder of years and climes--ten-fold
renewer,
As of the far-back days the poets tell--the Paradiso,
The straying thence, the separation long, but now the wandering done,
The journey done, the Journeyman come home, 50
And Man and Art, with Nature fused again.
Tutti! for Earth and Heaven!
The Almighty Leader now for me, for once has signal'd with his wand.
The manly strophe of the husbands of the world,
And all the wives responding.
The tongues of violins!
(I think, O tongues, ye tell this heart, that cannot tell itself;
This brooding, yearning heart, that cannot tell itself.)
Ah, from a little child,
Thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music; 60
My mother's voice, in lullaby or hymn;
(The voice--O tender voices--memory's loving voices!
Last miracle of all--O dearest mother's, sister's, voices;)
The rain, the growing corn, the breeze among the long-leav'd corn,
The measur'd sea-surf, beating on the sand,
The twittering bird, the hawk's sharp scream,
The wild-fowl's notes at night, as flying low, migrating north or
south,
The psalm in the country church, or mid the clustering trees, the
open air camp-meeting,
The fiddler in the tavern--the glee, the long-strung sailor-song,
The lowing cattle, bleating sheep--the crowing cock at dawn. 70
All songs of current lands come sounding 'round me,
The German airs of friendship, wine and love,
Irish ballads, merry jigs and dances--English warbles,
Chansons of France, Scotch tunes--and o'er the rest,
Italia's peerless compositions.
Across the stage, with pallor on her face, yet lurid passion,
Stalks Norma, brandishing the dagger in her hand.
I see poor crazed Lucia's eyes' unnatural gleam;
Her hair down her back falls loose and dishevell'd.
I see where Ernani, walking the bridal garden, 80
Amid the scent of night-roses, radiant, holding his bride by the
hand,
Hears the infernal call, the death-pledge of the horn.
To crossing swords, and grey hairs bared to heaven,
The clear, electric base and baritone of the world,
The trombone duo--Libertad forever!
From Spanish chestnut trees' dense shade,
By old and heavy convent walls, a wailing song,
Song of lost love--the torch of youth and life quench'd in despair,
Song of the dying swan--Fernando's heart is breaking.
Awaking from her woes at last, retriev'd Amina sings; 90
Copious as stars, and glad as morning light, the torrents of her joy.
(The teeming lady comes!
The lustrious orb--Venus contralto--the blooming mother,
Sister of loftiest gods--Alboni's self I hear.)
I hear those odes, symphonies, operas;
I hear in the William Tell, the music of an arous'd and angry people;
I hear Meyerbeer's Huguenots, the Prophet, or Robert;
Gounod's Faust, or Mozart's Don Juan.
I hear the dance-music of all nations,
The waltz, (some delicious measure, lapsing, bathing me in
bliss;) 100
The bolero, to tinkling guitars and clattering castanets.
I see religious dances old and new,
I hear the sound of the Hebrew lyre,
I see the Crusaders marching, bearing the cross on high, to the
martial clang of cymbals;
I hear dervishes monotonously chanting, interspers'd with frantic
shouts, as they spin around, turning always towards Mecca;
I see the rapt religious dances of the Persians and the Arabs;
Again, at Eleusis, home of Ceres, I see the modern Greeks dancing,
I hear them clapping their hands, as they bend their bodies,
I hear the metrical shuffling of their feet.
I see again the wild old Corybantian dance, the performers wounding
each other; 110
I see the Roman youth, to the shrill sound of flageolets, throwing
and catching their weapons,
As they fall on their knees, and rise again.
I hear from the Mussulman mosque the muezzin calling;
I see the worshippers within, (nor form, nor sermon, argument, nor
word,
But silent, strange, devout--rais'd, glowing heads--extatic faces.)
I hear the Egyptian harp of many strings,
The primitive chants of the Nile boatmen;
The sacred imperial hymns of China,
To the delicate sounds of the king, (the stricken wood and stone;)
Or to Hindu flutes, and the fretting twang of the vina, 120
A band of bayaderes.
Now Asia, Africa leave me--Europe, seizing, inflates me;
To organs huge, and bands, I hear as from vast concourses of voices,
Luther's strong hymn, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott;
Rossini's Stabat Mater dolorosa;
Or, floating in some high cathedral dim, with gorgeous color'd
windows,
The passionate Agnus Dei, or Gloria in Excelsis.
Composers! mighty maestros!
And you, sweet singers of old lands--Soprani! Tenori! Bassi!
To you a new bard, carolling free in the west,
Obeisant, sends his love. 130
(Such led to thee, O Soul!
All senses, shows and objects, lead to thee,
But now, it seems to me, sound leads o'er all the rest.)
I hear the annual singing of the children in St. Paul's Cathedral;
Or, under the high roof of some colossal hall, the symphonies,
oratorios of Beethoven, Handel, or Haydn;
The Creation, in billows of godhood laves me.
Give me to hold all sounds, (I, madly struggling, cry,)
Fill me with all the voices of the universe,
Endow me with their throbbings--Nature's also,
The tempests, waters, winds--operas and chants--marches and
dances, 140
Utter--pour in--for I would take them all.
Then I woke softly,
And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream,
And questioning all those reminiscences--the tempest in its fury,
And all the songs of sopranos and tenors,
And those rapt oriental dances, of religious fervor,
And the sweet varied instruments, and the diapason of organs,
And all the artless plaints of love, and grief and death,
I said to my silent, curious Soul, out of the bed of the slumber-
chamber,
Come, for I have found the clue I sought so long, 150
Let us go forth refresh'd amid the day,
Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real,
Nourish'd henceforth by our celestial dream.
And I said, moreover,
Haply, what thou hast heard, O Soul, was not the sound of winds,
Nor dream of raging storm, nor sea-hawk's flapping wings, nor harsh
scream,
Nor vocalism of sun-bright Italy,
Nor German organ majestic--nor vast concourse of voices--nor layers
of harmonies;
Nor strophes of husbands and wives--nor sound of marching soldiers,
Nor flutes, nor harps, nor the bugle-calls of camps; 160
But, to a new rhythmus fitted for thee,
Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night
air, uncaught, unwritten,
Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write.
Walt Whitman
Appendix 2:
Marathon bombing survivor dances onstage at TED talk By Bella English | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 19, 2014 http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2014/03/19/marathonbombing-victim-adrianne-haslet-davis-dances-onstage-tedtalk/N7P3EF3zmrGXtE9brkndxN/story.html?p1=Article_Facet_Related_ Article
http://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance
Professional dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost her lower left leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, took to the stage Wednesday afternoon to do a short rhumba wearing a prosthetic leg made for her at the MIT Media Lab. Haslet-Davis, who has taught 20 different types of dance at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Boston, performed briefly at a TED Conference in Vancouver, B.C. Hugh Herr, director of biomechatronics at the Media Lab, was at the conference to explain the design of the leg, which he made with a team of scientists savvy in prosthetics, robotics, and biomechanics. Herr is a double amputee, resulting from a rock climbing accident in 1982. He first met Haslet-Davis at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and thought he could help. The dancer’s husband, Air Force Captain Adam Davis, suffered a cut nerve and artery in his left foot in the bombing and had a skin graft from his right thigh to repair his right foot, which was peppered with shrapnel. He had just returned to Boston two weeks earlier from a deployment in Afghanistan when the couple decided to spend a nice spring day watching the Boston Marathon.
After the TED performance, Haslet-Davis stood alongside dancer Christian Lightner and wiped away tears. “I’m thrilled to have danced again. It was invigorating to dance publicly with my new leg, but also to realize that my return to dance may have the power to inspire other people to reach for their goals and be proactive in their lives,” she said in a statement. “I was always determined to dance again, and I knew that I had to, that I would, and here I am. My first dance happening to be so near the anniversary of the marathon bombing stands as a reminder that I’m a survivor, not a victim.” The statement continued: “I want to thank the people of Boston for their incredible support on every day of my journey. And of course, I’d like to thank Hugh Herr, the director of the Biomechatronics group at The MIT Media Lab and founder of BIOM, for his determination to create the leg that allowed me to dance again, and to this amazing international conference, TED, for inviting Hugh to speak and me to dance.”
Appendix 3: CCSS Connections Addressed Through the Above Activities
Writing in History, Science, Technical Subjects / Reading Informational Texts
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.W & WHST.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Reading History/Social Studies
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RH.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-8.RH.5 Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, casually).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RH.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.11-12.RH.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. CCSS cross references for discussion questions (question numbers provided) Reading Literacy
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.1. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL. 4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.5 Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12.RL.6 Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
Writing CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context 12 and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3 e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.6-12. W 9. “Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics”. “Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history. “Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new”.
