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Varsha Seshan

Of Performances and Community

February 25, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I love solitude. Yet, whenever we perform, we come together in ways the audience can never know, and I’m beyond grateful. This time, it began with a performance that fell through. Our teacher, Guru Mythili Raghavan, was more than a little upset. Immediately, in stepped Ashwini to organise another performance for us. We would, after […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, Guru Mythili Raghavan

My Year in Dance: 2023

January 14, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I love when I write in detail about a performance shortly after the show! The emotions are fresh, and so many details that we slowly forget are still crystal clear. In April 2023, we performed Chandalika, which was an exceptional experience. Even though I wrote about it in detail, I didn’t mention twisted ankles, work schedules, […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Chandalika, Guru Mythili Raghavan, Guru Samarpanam, performance, programme

Chandalika 2023

May 2, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The four roles I played – dahiwala (curd seller), farmer, king’s messenger, and mother’s disciple What does one say after a performance? Performing is like a drug. We’re high on it for days after, and we can’t wait to do it again. And elaborate dance dramas? They’re special. Many of us have been part of […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, Chandalika, performance

Remembering, Mourning, Celebrating

June 21, 2021 by Varsha Seshan 3 Comments

I’ve taken a while to write about Raghavan uncle. There’s so much to say, so much to process. People call and ask me how Mythili Mami is, how everyone is. And each time I talk to someone, I remember another anecdote, another special moment with Uncle. Because there were just so many of them in […]

Filed Under: Dance, People Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, R.S. Raghavan

My Year in Dance – 2020

January 10, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Each year, I write about all our performances, all our little dance anecdotes and all the travel that goes with dance. This year? We had a whole new set of dance experiences. I wrote about going online with our dance classes and everything that went with it, but already, less than six months after I […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, dance class

Dashami – Version 2020

October 27, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Dashami is special. Each year, we have a small performance for all the children at dance class. They wear nice clothes and jewellery. Their faces glow with the anticipation of a dance programme. It’s the one day in the year that parents are allowed to come for class and watch them dance! Dressed in their […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, Dashami, online performance, performance, programme

Online Dance Class

June 22, 2020 by Varsha Seshan 6 Comments

Yesterday, at dance class, we broke into spontaneous applause. You know how sometimes, when someone’s internet connection falters during an online class, the layout suddenly changes? And if you’re completely unused to anything technological, what are you supposed to do? Yesterday, our dance teacher Mythili Mami clicked those three vertical dots, found and clicked ‘change […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, class, Guru Mythili Raghavan

My Year in Dance

January 8, 2020 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

Dancers in Bharatanatyam costume in a semi-circle. In the centre, one dancer dressed as Krishna

2019 was not an easy year for me as a dancer. In February, I fell and sprained an already weak ankle and nursed a swollen ankle for three months or more. I continued to teach, but practising and performing were out of the question. I was restless, of course, but I do know that I […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, dancer, Murdeshwar, performance, teaching, Udupi, World Dance Day 2019

Dance Exams

December 16, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We didn’t have dance exams when we were children, and I think I’m glad of that. Sometimes, though, I wonder – if we had appeared for exams, would we have been more driven to learn? Or would we have wanted to stop learning dance? I was one of those kids who loved exams, but I […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, exam

Arangetram – Sakshi and Shivona

June 23, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

As I write this post, I look back at the number of times I’ve written about an Arangetram. Some are just posts sharing details of upcoming arangetrams, but others … The emotions after – in August 2013 A reflection on the idea of the Arangetram itself What I felt after an Arangetram in 2014 Our […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Arangetram, Guru Mythili Raghavan

World Dance Day 2019

May 7, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What did you do on World Dance Day? We put up two performances! To be completely honest, we did not plan the performances keeping World Dance Day in mind; things just fell into place that way. We were scheduled to perform in Udupi on the 28th of April, and one of the dancers in our […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Murdeshwar, performance, programme, Shivaanjali, Sri Chitrapur Math, World Dance Day 2019

Experiences on Stage – Udupi

May 4, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Performances, performances. So often, the joy of dancing on stage comes from the story it creates, which can be told and retold ad infinitum. I’ve written about this before, so many times. My first performance with the ‘big girls’, when we got so immersed in the drama that we ignored the recorded music The time […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Krishnaarpanam, performance, programme, Udupi

Performances Ahead

April 24, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Poster for a performance at Ranjangana Sabhangana in Udupi on 28th April 2019

Why do we dance? And why do people suspend their lives for a couple of hours to watch? Performing arts seem to exist in a world of their own, with their own rules and rigorous demands. What other field has a saying like ‘The show must go on’? I think the joy of a performance […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Bharatanatyam, Chitrapur, Guru Mythili Raghavan, Krishnaarpanam, Murdeshwar, performance, programme, Shivaanjali, Udupi

Reading, Writing, Dancing

October 19, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, I asked the children at my Writers’ Club whether they would like to make readers laugh or cry. Three girls said they wanted to make readers laugh. 12 said they wanted to make readers cry. When a few said they would like to do both, those who had already raised their hands […]

Filed Under: Dance, Random, Workshops, Writing Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Ammachi's Amazing Machines, I Am Not Afraid, programme, St. Mary's School, Storyweaver, The Elephant Bird, The House with Chicken Legs, The Tigers of Taboo Valley, Writers' Club

Performing in Varanasi

April 6, 2018 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The last time I visited Varanasi, I was nearly run down by a charging bull. Not surprisingly, when the planning began for a dance trip to Varanasi, I was not overly excited. Varanasi, for me, was a place where religion was elaborately performed, as if every day was a festival. I was also utterly put […]

Filed Under: Dance, Travel Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, art, Bharatanatyam, BHU, culture, performance, programme, Varanasi, workshop

Sisters at Dance Class

November 5, 2017 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Perhaps because Nisha and I have always been so close and so affectionate towards each other, I have always been intrigued by relationships between sisters. At dance class, we do have the odd pair of sisters joining class. These aren’t as common as I would imagine. Often, one sister (usually the elder one) joins class, […]

Filed Under: Children, Dance

Why Performances are Fun

October 10, 2017 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Anyone who has ever performed knows about the adrenalin rush, the energy, the feeling of having achieved something. But more than all of these, I think performances are fun because they’re full of stories. Some are dramatic stories that we tell and retell, like when we performed in Chidambaram, and the time when Nisha and […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, art, Bharatanatyam, performance, programme

Dashami Poojai

October 6, 2017 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Each year, we have a poojai at dance class for Dashami. Now, at the Academy of Indian Dances, there are four teachers, including me. Mythili Mami is, of course, head; that goes without saying. On Dashami, a little girl crept up to the corner where we were standing. “I want to speak to Ma’am,” she […]

Filed Under: Children, Dance Tagged With: academy, Academy of Indian Dances, art, Dashami, Guru Mythili Raghavan

Guru Mythili Raghavan

March 5, 2017 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What makes Mythili Maami special? Why have so many of us been with her for two decades and longer? Why did we not leave the Academy of Indian Dances and set up on our own like so many other dancers? The answer lies in a story that each one of us is only too willing to share. […]

Filed Under: Books, Dance, Writing Tagged With: academy, art, Bharatanatyam, culture, India, reading

Urja – A Classical Dance Festival

February 11, 2017 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Maharashtra Cultural Centre has invited the Academy of Indian Dances to perform for Urja, a classical dance festival. For this performance, we’ve taken an old theme, one that we presented in 2012, Naaritva: Exploring Womanhood. The performance explores the journey of a woman through traditional pieces, both classical and folk. We begin with girlhood, associated with fun […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: academy, Arangetram, art, Bharatanatyam, culture, performance, programme

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