In every moment, life offers an infinite number of possibilities. But humans chose to live within limits. Infinite Artiste is a process developed by Ragini, who has spent over two decades as a leading dancer, teacher and choreographer, to encourage exploration. Movement is just one of the several tools that Ragini uses to free the mind of her students so that they can imagine and create endlessly. The process has transformed several lives.
At its heart, the process relies on unlearning the conditioning that the society has enforced on humans.
It reminds every human that they were all born unique with an infinite ability to imagine and explore. Every single person is an artist. The dictionary defines an artist as a person who creates art, using conscious skill and creative imagination. From this alone, we can assume that art is what comes from our ability to imagine. And imagination is a very human skill. Psychoanalysts have found that imagination begins in infancy. It forms the basis of how we relate to the world. At first, the child is born and if circumstances prevail, s/he gets to experience a oneness with the mother figure. Eventually, as the infant grows, the mother resumes her regular lifestyle and in her absence- the infant begins to imagine the presence of the mother to soothe herself/himself. This ‘inner’ representation of people/objects that we house- is the basis of imagination. Which eventually unfolds into children’s play. They begin to enact and replicate what they internally understand of the world. Sometimes, they also draw it. This urge to recreate all we see and experience goes back to the beginning of human civilisation. Historians have found many cave paintings- where cavemen tried to draw the animals they saw in and around their daily life. To survive, exploration was key for early civilization and in the process, they created art and science. The artist and scientist both share the quest for exploration & discovery of the unknown. To find and to create, can often be the same thing.
By focusing on breath, mind, spine, body and movement, Ragini helps students connect with their inner being that is infinite and artistic. She helps students get into a process of working on the fabric of the mind fabric and students experience their life and their movement improving.
The process is completely opposite of the way art and life are perceived by society. The world tends to erode the essence of art and sees it only as a commodity for consumption, and humans as machines. But humans are not machines. Art is a constant reminder of the same. And Art should not exist on the fringes as hobby or a long-lost passion confined in the ideas of practicality, of making money and working hard. Instead, Art is synonymous with slowness. Art activates our parasympathetic nervous system i.e it slows down our heart rate, it brings us to breath, to signs of relief, or moments of catharsis. All of which are experiences that return us to us, our humanness.
This is why we often hear and perhaps find art “speaking” to us. This moment where a particular artwork seems to reach into the very depths of our being to stir something there, to move something or touch something there- is a moment of being seen, and understood, often wordlessly. It is a feeling that washes over us, that makes us feel unmistakably alive. Art has the power to evoke the most potent emotions- from an airy joy to a transcendental peace, to condensed grief. Art is then, a medium, a mirror and an outlet of and for our humanness.
And an artist is an explorer, a creator & a dreamer, all at once. We create art to communicate our innermost thoughts and feelings, be it poetry, photography, movement, music, movies, buildings & gardens, Art thus, is a medium of self-expression. We are made up of so many parts, not all of which have the space to find expression or can find expression in any other way besides art.
This makes everyone an artist. Whether they are a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer. These professions require a level of creativity to find various efficient ways of doing something. To survive, exploration was key for early civilisation and in the process, they created art and science. The artist and scientist both share the quest for exploration & discovery of the unknown. To find and to create, can often be the same thing. That idea creates the fundamental of an everyday artist/infinite artist. What we can do from our end is to encourage our wider community to become everyday artists and help them explore a way of life through breath spine movement.
Science is the method to the madness; people say art is akin to madness but no one sees science as mad because science is about discovering the whys, hows, the processes of things- and without processes/methods. We remain unaware, we remain mad without method. Ragini bridges art and science together by providing art processes/processes to find inner art.
With Infinite Artiste, you can re-discover your inner artiste, your individuality & your form of self-expression. This process will connect you to your life and simple pleasure like sharing joy and expressing pain. It puts art in the centre stage. It equates existence with a pursuit of creativity, imagination and exploration. That very shift is what it means to be an everyday artist because it is as simple: art is in everything and everyone. And it was with this purpose that Ragini created the Infinite Artiste. To offer a space for people to return to exploration as a way of life. She wants to break the stereotype that art belongs only to a few. She wants to spread the message that everyone is an artist and can practice art infinitely every single day.
Come join the process of returning to whom we were always supposed to be: everyday artists.
Ragini Bhajanka 