THE ‘SOUND’ OF
HUMAN BODY!
VINAY AGARWAL
Bharat Verma, India’s first body percussionist, talks
about the art of producing sounds using one’s own body,
it’s usage to elevate one’s dynamics with his or her body
and an emerging trend of body jamming sessions…
A distinct form of dance and rhythm,
body percussion is principally
performed in two ways: either
by sitting at one place and using
your body as drum or in the
form of dance by moving around.
Explaining the concept further,
Bharat says, “Percussion in itself
means creating musical rhythms
and beats on instruments with
the help of hands or sticks. Body
percussion uses the same principle
of creating rhythmic sounds, but the
instruments become our own body
parts such as the hands, legs, chests,
arms etc. Anyone can beat their
body parts and create sounds, but
the difficult part comes in creating
rhythms in a perfect tempo.”
A South African form of musical
communication, body percussion
was originally used by slaves to
pass on the messages through a
combination of bodily vibrations
such as stomps and slaps. The
art comes with its set of benefits
though. It stimulates control of
movement, muscle strength, co-
ordination, balance and helps
in improving mental acumen
by enhancing concentration,
memory and perception.
The enriching attributes of body
percussion make it for an ideal
workout choice on its own or in
combination with other techniques.
Informs Bharat, “As per medical
science, problems like blood
pressure, eye weakness, and
headaches can be controlled by
pressing different parts of your
palm. While doing Body Percussion
one uses his/her palm mostly, and
the pressure exerted henceforth
increases blood circulation.”
Besides regulating many diseases,
body percussion, according
to Bharat can be immensely
therapeutic. Speaking on which,
he says, “Many of my body
percussion sets for instance involve
portrayal of negative emotions,
which have helped me to not
only cope with them, but also
overcome them after seeing things
from different perspectives”.
The beauty of any art is that it is
bereft of boundaries. And, that
quality of it provides a fertile base
for cross-pollination of ideas and
multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Body percussion, for instance, can
be coupled with several dance forms
be it Salsa, Tap or Bharatnatyam. Its
well-timed rhythms can complement
an array of musical instruments
too. Bharat feels that the rhythmic
sound of body percussion can
act as a backbone to any genre
of musical piece. He adds, “Body
percussion can be played solo or
in group with or without music.
If one wants to give variations
then he or she can fuse music into
it to make it more beautiful.”
Bharat intends to explore
collaborative aspect of body
percussion by joining forces with
a rapper, beat boxer and drummer.
He tells me that one can even sing
with body percussion and use human
body as replacement of drum.
When I ask him about the trend
of Human Jamming session,
which basically, is group of people
(body musicians) jamming to
‘body percussion’, he feels, “Body
Percussion if performed in group
would bring people closer and
create an atmosphere of harmony
and happiness. I am seeing that
of late corporates are looking to
explore such sessions to build up
a healthy team environment.”
Well, the beauty of body percussion
is it can be done by people of all age
groups from four to eighty. So, if
you love music, dance, just go for it!
Your body will thank you for this.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
31