Nothing is the same without our teacher, but we did what we could anyway.The good news: We carried off Pinnal Kolattam well - no mistakes, thank God for that! Even with our teacher not there, no one's hair fell, nothing terribly embarrassing happened, thank God for that too! Changes were hurried, but were carried out as well as we could, each girl as independent as she could be.The strange news is that the interval was far longer than we planned, for the most bizarre reason ever - no one was able to draw open the curtain! What got us stressed was the fact that we were sure the audience thought we were taking ages to change, but that was not true! The button to operate the curtains didn't work, and we couldn't draw them open manually! For twenty minutes, people ran up and down, trying to figure out what to do, even calling up the person who installed the curtains. Finally, the … [Read more...]
Performing Tomorrow!
As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of St. Mira's College for Girls, the Academy of Indian Dances will be putting up a programme of Bharatanatyam and folk dances on Tuesday, the 22nd of January, 2013. We begin with a traditional Ganesh Vandana - an invocation to the elephant-headed god. After that, we travel from state to state, giving our audience glimpses of different folk dances, traditional costumes and cultures - West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Nagaland. As a tribute to St. Mira, in whose college we will be performing, we will also perform a Mira bhajan in the Bhagavatamela (dance drama) style.Performing in the absence of our guru is a challenge indeed, and we hope to do her credit!Programme: Ganesh Vandana Bengali folk dance Malayala kummi Marathi folk dance Kuratti kummi Pinnal Kolattam Mira bhajan Dandiya Garba Naga tribal … [Read more...]
Plea for Justice
At one of the places where I teach, many of the children are brought up in the belief that the teacher is next to God. They are silent in class, not bold enough to speak, rarely confident enough to tell me that they did not understand something. It's a huge obstacle I have to surmount with each new student.Thanks to this, and because of the fact that punctuality is the responsibility of the parents of a seven-year-old and not the child herself, I didn't say anything to two children who were repeatedly late for my class. One day, the children, accompanied by their mother, came fifteen minutes late, and I seized the opportunity to tell the mother that this was not acceptable. Duly apologetic, the mother promised that it would not happen again.I thought the matter was over, but sensed undercurrents of something I could not quite place. One girl, not one of the late-comers, glanced … [Read more...]
Automated People
I went last evening for dance class, as usual. I've been going there for nineteen years, so I walked in as I always do, briskly, sure of where I wanted to go.An irate watchman surprised me by yelling out at me for walking in like that. "How can you just go in without making an entry?""Sorry, I had no idea," I said, mildly. "When did this begin?""It's been there for months now!" he said, grumpily."I didn't have to make an entry last week," I pointed out, writing my name. "And I come for dance class every week!" I looked at the next column and paused."Flat number," said the watchman, curtly."I'm going to the hall...""Why?""For dance class," I said again."Okay, leave this one."My pen hovered over the next column. I could not figure out what I was expected to write."Who do you want to meet?" asked the watchman, as if talking to an imbecile."Erm... I teach dance here. … [Read more...]
The Right Words
At dance class, children frequently cannot find their shoes. They leave their shoes in a mess outside the hall, and in their eagerness to leave when their parents come, other shoes get kicked, sometimes quite far away.One child came up to me with worry written all over her little round face. "Miss, my feet..." She stopped. The word was wrong."My shoe," I suggested, having understood the problem.She shook her head, frowning. That was not the word she was looking for. "My foot," she began, laboriously."Shoe," I suggested again, helpfully, I thought.She shook her head again, a little impatient with me this time. A frown of concentration had replaced the worry on her face. After a few seconds, she announced, triumphantly, "One foot does not have a shoe." … [Read more...]
Parikramaa 2012
Parikramaa 2012 - this weekend at Balgandharva, Pune! … [Read more...]
Arbitrary Right
A little girl in my dance class was confused."Which is your right hand?" I asked."This one?" she suggested, tentatively, raising her left hand."No," I said, gently, used to these problems. "That's your left hand. The other one is your right.""NO!" she said, crossly. "That's your right."I smiled and demonstrated to her, "This is my right side; this is my left. That is your right side; that is your left."The little girl turned around so that both of us were facing the same direction. "Now which is my right?" she asked, triumphant at the thought that she had fooled me.I held her right hand. "This one.""How?" she moaned, upset with how fickle I was. "You said that window was my right hand!" … [Read more...]