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Varsha Seshan

Talking to Children

March 11, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

In one of the places where I used to teach dance, children from various backgrounds often had trouble communicating with me. They spoke little or no English and sometimes, little or no Hindi, Tamil or Marathi. Problems occurred when they spoke just one language if that one was not one I understood. I remember one […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: communication, English, language

Surprise Farewell Party

February 26, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

A new life begins for me on the 1st of March. I’m going to stop all my hundreds of classes here and there and teach full-time in a school. Last evening, the girls from one of my classes gave me a surprise farewell party that was truly heart-warming. Thanks to their excited whispered planning, there […]

Filed Under: Children, Dance

Gulaal – a festival of expression

February 24, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Day one of Indian Rhythm and Arts Association’s Gulaal was wonderful. We went essentially for Alarmel Valli’s performance, but were blown away by the second part of the evening – Nandita Das’s Between the Lines. Valli, in keeping with the season, performed two pieces on spring and concluded with a Nritta Lahiri. The upper part of her body was […]

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

Experiences on Stage III

February 22, 2013 by Varsha Seshan 3 Comments

Performing in Chidambaram is an experience that any dancer would cherish. Mythologically, it is the place where Lord Shiva came and danced the Ananda Tandava, at the request of the sages. The golden temple of Chidambaram finds its way into many traditional songs, thanks to its splendour and history. When we danced there, one of […]

Filed Under: Dance, Travel Tagged With: academy, art, Bharatanatyam, Chidambaram, culture, history, India, performance, programme

Getting into the mood

February 18, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Before any performance, my dance teacher encourages us not to talk about anything unrelated to dance and the programme ahead of us. She asks us to be silent, thinking about what lies ahead of us, meditating in our own ways. In keeping with the idea, if ever we dance to recorded music, I try and […]

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

Experiences on Stage II

February 10, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I remember the first time I performed with the Senior Girls – the Big Girls at Satara. We were doing a dance drama to recorded music. That’s always a challenge because we can’t let our emotions run free, expressing ourselves the way we want to and letting ourselves get carried away. We were performing Draupadi […]

Filed Under: Dance

Dress Rehearsal?

February 8, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Last evening was the first show of our cultural programme at Sanskriti. Everyone in charge treated it as a kind of exalted dress rehearsal. Everything was practised – giving gifts to the teachers, standing for a photo, everything. For them, it was just a complete, thorough rehearsal before Saturday. For me, though, yesterday was the […]

Filed Under: Dance

Performing tomorrow and on Saturday!

February 6, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I teach dance at a school run by the Army Wives’ Welfare Association (AWWA) – and they have their annual cultural programme tomorrow. Beginning with a Ganesh Vandana, there are several performances on the programme. My girls are going to be doing a Kannada folk dance and Swarajati (Raag Hamsanandi).  I’ll be concluding the programme […]

Filed Under: Dance

Experiences on Stage

January 29, 2013 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

I’m sure every performer could write a book about things that go wrong on stage. The most wonderful part about performing on stage is the fact that nothing is predictable. Even after practising for, say, a year, something is bound to go wrong. I remember when we performed the Ramayana on stage. Deeply inspired by […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: Academy of Indian Dances, Dance Ballet, performance, programme, Ramayana

Performed today!

January 22, 2013 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: academy, culture, folk, India, performance, programme

Performing Tomorrow!

January 21, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: academy, Bharatanatyam, culture, folk, India

Plea for Justice

January 15, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Children, Dance

Automated People

January 13, 2013 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Dance

The Right Words

December 4, 2012 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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…” […]

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: left, right

Parikramaa 2012

November 22, 2012 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Parikramaa 2012 – this weekend at Balgandharva, Pune!

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: dance, performance, programme

Arbitrary Right

November 21, 2012 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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, […]

Filed Under: Children, Dance Tagged With: confused, left, right

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