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 […]
Chandalika 2023
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 […]
My Year in Dance – 2020
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 […]
Dashami – Version 2020
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 […]
Online Dance Class
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 […]
Bangalore 2020
Bangalore is probably among my favourite cities in the world. I love the weather, I love the trees (even though so many have been cut), and most of all, I love the mood of the city. As a child, I used to spend every summer there, at my grandparents’. Now, I continue to go there […]
My Year in Dance
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 […]
Dance Exams
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 […]
Performances Ahead
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 […]
Back from Bali
Today, I finally finished writing my travelogue, which is over 50 pages long. I needed to get that done quickly before I forgot all the details! And now, I can leisurely write my blog, bit by bit, with one exciting detail after another. We were a group of ten dancers, and we were put up […]
Performing in Varanasi
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 […]
Why Performances are Fun
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 […]
Guru Mythili Raghavan
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. […]
Urja – A Classical Dance Festival
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 […]
Our Performance Last Week
Many things went wrong. Too many things went wrong. Mahatma Phule Sanskrutik Bhavan informed us on the 5th of December that the mayor required the hall on the 18th, so all performances scheduled for that day had been cancelled. And yes, our performance was scheduled for the 18th. 59 children were to perform. We had […]
Performance at Tirupathi
As a child watching a cricket match live on television, I remember asking my grandfather, “How does the camera know where to look?” Two days ago, looking at five people sitting together and ensuring that our performance was screened live all over the world, I remembered my question and smiled. Performing in Tirupathi was an experience that […]
Kalakshetra 2015
One year ago, three of us had the privilege of dancing at Kalakshetra in front of my teacher’s teachers. I can’t believe that a year has passed since that wonderful day that was so filled with emotion. We were scared, but our teacher was terrified – she had to play the nattuvangam on the same stage that […]
Performing on 8 May!
I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked me when we’re performing in Pune. Finally, here we go! The senior students of the Academy of Indian Dances bring to you a traditional Bharatanatyam programme, featuring a range of pieces that explore nritta, nritya and natya. Beginning with an invocatory dance, we move on […]
Our Performance on Sunday
Performing for three minutes is often more trouble than it’s worth … not this time, though. People often assume that a three-minute performance is no big deal. Let’s look at it this way, though. Leaving aside the time we take to choreograph, learn, coordinate and practise, we could just look at the day we perform. […]
Paying a Tribute – Sakal Times
Thank you, Sakal Times, for the article about our Kalakshetra performance!