You must remember during your childhood, how eagerly you waited throughout the year for your winter vacations. Nowadays, things are no different. Children all over the world put up with all the hard work throughout the year and impatiently anticipate their winter holidays. It must be noted that amid the congested annual schedule the children only get two major vacations- the summer and the winter vacations. Now it is obvious that they are provided with much more scope and options during the winter as compared to summer which makes the Christmas holidays their favorite one. Among the various options mentioned above one of the thriving and most favored form of entertainment is Children Pantomime. For years on end, Pantomime shows have been providing immense amounts of fun and joy to be cherished by the children during their vacations especially Christmas. But a recent survey shows that there has been a steady depreciation in the popularity of Pantomimes over the past few years and children have become much averse to these once popular art of entertainment.
What Actually Is A Pantomime?
Numerous definitions can be found of the word Pantomime and staying true to all those definitions it can be said that Pantomimes are a kind of Musical stage performances for family entertainment based on facial expressions and movement instead of the spoken word and with the considerable aid of songs, dance and props. ‘Pantomime’ as a term is closely associated with the ability to communicate notwithstanding the barriers of words, language and class.
A Bit Of History
Pantomime is actually derived from a Greek word Pantomimes. Panto means ‘all’ and mimos means ‘imitator’ or ‘actor’. Thus in ancient Greece originated the earliest forms of Pantomimes consisting of a group who ‘imitated all’ using music, dance and props. It gradually developed into acts of all genres including tragedy, sex and of course comedy.
Cause Of Recent Declination
The recent decline of the once popular Pantomime is a result of a lot of reasons. A deficiency of Pantomime as an independent art form is one of the primary reasons. Nowadays, Pantomimes are included in theatre plays or mimicry acts or any other form of art rather than an art itself. Pantomime Companies, which once thrived on their successful pantomime shows, are now on the verge of extinction. It is because children nowadays have lost their basic interest in Pantomimes show. They have been distracted by a lot of other attractive forms of entertainment which are gradually replacing Pantomimes. Video games animation shows are strong examples of such forms. Children apparently have become smarter and they no longer find men and women dressed in colorful and over-the-top dresses and making exaggerated expressions funny. Therefore, the declination becomes inevitable.
Need For Revival
Not only does pantomime enrich the children’s knowledge of ancient stories and fables, they also enhance their imaginative mind which is constantly being narrowed down by lousy computer graphics enclosed in games. The Christmas pantomimes were thus popular at a time because of their simple narrative and excellent performances which inspired the children in numerous ways. Their ideologies of good overpowering evil and tragic heroes have been framed mostly by Pantomimes. With the decrementing popularity of pantomimes we not only run a risk of our children losing their imaginative and artistic powers but also being devoid of a lot of virtues.
No comments:
Post a Comment