Day 166 : Varnam Challenge!

After attempting Bho Shambho, Alaripppu and a Thillana, as of today, I am starting to learn a full fledged 35 minute Varnam for my Bharatanatyam practice. What a varnam is very well explained here.

Yup, 35 minutes. And am at minute 4. One needs to note that the first 2 minutes was spent in singing by the vocalist, so effectively that's 2 minutes of dance.

The rhythm and footwork is so complicated that I am struggling to figure out just what on earth is going on. This is the most frustrating downside of having to learn off Youtube videos. A real teacher in front would have made this way easier.

Anyway, now that the challenge has been taken up, I want to see through this. If all goes well, maybe in 2 - 3 months I can come back and say that I have completed learning it!

For today, I am happy that I took up the 35 minute Varnam Challenge!

Day 144 : Thillana #2!

After a long gap, I got back to dance today and decided to learn a new Thillana. 

I started on it and within 15 minutes was panting like a dog. Not because of its difficulty level, but because of how quickly I seemed to have lost my stamina/fitness level with the reduced exercise the past couple of weeks. Ugh. Why does maintaining fitness have to be so difficult?! 

Anyway, the good news is that I went through about 2-3 minutes of the 9-minute piece - it took me more than an hour with ample breaks in between, but any progress is good progress, so there. 

Yes, today shall be about starting on my second thillana, irrespective of some clear challenges. 

356 more to go. 

Days 123 - 130 : 8 days, 8 pointers.

I am taking the lazy way out and combining posts for a few days. For a week, to be precise. Which is really awful but that's what am doing. Mainly because, after I got back from Phuket, everything has been a whirlwind. I no longer remember what I did every day. Plus of course, I procrastinated the blogging every day that now things have become old enough for my memory to start failing.

BUT...  I can find 7 things to be happy about. Or in other words, there are 7 things that I can remember that am allocatingfor each day.

So here we go.

1) I got back to dancing and practiced the Thilllana and Bho Shambho again.

2) I got back to Fitness Blender after a really long gap. It used to be one of my often visited channel for workout videos but recently I had been more into yoga and dance. But somehow I felt like some strength & cardio training were calling out to me, so am back at Fitness Blender. So far, am enjoying it.

3) I met a friend from school - "friend since 1991" to be precise - who was visiting with his family. I took them to National Gallery where his adorable daughter and my own Madam had a whale of a time. They were true blue foodies, so my treat to them was at my favourite restaurant Saha and they loved it! The fish curry, the chettinaad chicken curry, the hyderabadi biriyani, the mini uthappams, the dessert with nitrogen (as we called it), were all terrific!

4) I had my mid year performance review and I was told by my manager that he has nominated me for a "Emerging Leader Program" at work, which I think is his way of saying that I have done well so far. So, pretty happy about that.

5) Madam came up with a few more gems, Sample this :

Me : Don't be naughty, I'll give you one "adi"! (adi = whack)
Madam : You can't give me "adi". Because you are my buddy.

(Yup, now she rhymes when she talks back).

6) The husband and I had a date night after ages! I don't even remember the last time just the two of us stepped out. We went to Club Street and got ourselves some Italian food and wine. Felt good!

7 ) When Qlab started to work on the film, they noticed some serious quality issues with the dubbing in certain scenes. That's not surprising because the "dubbing studio" till now has been a random room in the actress' house. So they requested for some redub and since we are so close to completing the film, I didn't wanna mess up the redub of these last bits. So we dubbed in a real studio which was a very cool experience!

8) Last but not the least - I read three books. All three I loved! I wrote a little review on Facebook which am shamelessly borrowing and putting here.
In order of how much I loved each...
#3 - "Hector finds time" by Francois Lelord. While not as awesome as "Hector and his search for happiness" mainly due to many unnecessary strained attempts at humour, it was still a fun read and many a time, an eye opening one too.
#2 - "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion. An absolutely delightful find - especially thanks to the incredibly adorable character of Prof Don Tillman. Had real fun reading this very fresh romantic comedy!
#1 - "My Grandmother sends her regards and apologies" by Fredrik Backman, the same genius who wrote "A man called Ove". These two now are my most favourite books of all time. Incredibly imaginative, "My Grandmother...." makes one laugh, cry and think - all in a sentence. Not once, but many many times. Narrated through the eyes of a quirky seven year old, this precious little book combines fantasy, wonder, magic, joy, dreams, hope, love, life and much more! Mr Backman has a fan for life!

So there. 8 days squeezed into 8 pointers. Lazy post, alright.

370 more to go.

Day 98 : Ballet!

I started to learn Bharatanatyam when I was 3.5 years old. So I thought Madam, who is now past 3.5, is very much ready to start learning dance. Especially since she seemed to enjoy it so much.

So I took her to a trial dance class. Ballet, not Bharatanatyam. Because she seemed to be more into twirling and hopping plus the classes were right next door, so there were practical reasons too.

Since it was a trial class, the parents were allowed to sit in and we could watch the proceedings, which am happy to say went pretty well. She had a ball of a time! They had props and stories and even though Madam spent half the time admiring herself and doing her own thing in front of the studio mirror, she seemed to really get into the groove.

My ballet butterfly!

At the end of it all, when I asked her if she enjoyed it, her reply was a resounding YES! Which in turn made me feel pretty happy about my decision to take her to the class. 

402 more to go. 

Day 95 : Thillana

My personal discovery is that I do not enjoy Abhinaya (acting) in Bharatnatyam. I enjoy the physical movements and the rhythms of the dance form but not the expressions and storytelling as much. Maybe because the dancers tend to be really feminine about the whole deal, and the abhinaya is similar to that of the over the top actresses from early days of Indian cinema. Which of course works beautifully when good dancers deliver it, but I feel nothing but awkward, in spite of having years of experience of actually have done it. Oh well.  

So now my mission is to find dance items where I do not have to do any abhinaya. So after Bho Shambho and Alarippu, I am now at a Thillana and enjoying it thoroughly! I really love the complex rhythms and energy of the thillana and needless to say, it is an excellent workout too!

405 more to go. 

Day 82 : Alarippu

Today's dance item of choice was the Alarippu. It is the first item a Bharatanatyam student learns - as it really works your arm and leg muscles in preparation for future items and also helps you refine the neck movements and perfect the rhythm and timing.

I found a really nice video on Youtube and quickly learnt it. The last time I performed this was when I was in 6 years old or so, but I could remember most of the movements and the music for the footwork.

However, I felt completely spent after just a couple of rounds of dancing to it and I found myself crashing in heap on the floor when there are quick transitions from a full squat to full standing postures. Literally, the most basic item in Bharatanatyam brought me to my knees.

All that awesomeness I felt yesterday about my fitness levels was quick to evaporate. I guess it was the universe's way of telling me to keep it humble. Oh well - lesson well taken!

I persevered for about an hour, with little progress, but enjoyed every minute of being a humble student of dance!

418 more to go. 

Day 80 : Bho Shambho!

The excitement around dance continues! I couldn't wait to get back from work and dance again, so that's exactly what I did. And as of today, I have learnt the entire piece of Bho Shambho. I can't describe how good it feels to be able to dance an entire Bharatanatyam item, that too to my all time favourite song!

Super duper awesomeness!

420 more to go. 

Day 79 : Dance!

After a gap of many years, I am practicing Bharatanatyam!

It all began with Anita Nair's "Mistress". The book is centered around a Kathakali dancer and whenever the character talks about his dance, I got transported back to my own days of dancing! I had trained in Indian classical dances like Bharatanayam and Mohiniyattom for more than a decade, but have been completely out of touch for several years now. And thanks to Nair and her book, I wanted to get back in touch with what used to be a huge passion at one point in time.

So that's what I did. I chose a Youtube video of one of my most favourite pieces Bho Shambho - an invocation to Lord Shiva, the God of Dance, and started to learn it. I had performed this about 15 years ago but every version is choreographed differently, and I chose one which I liked.

Well, I shall admit that all the years without dancing was very clearly obvious. I struggled with some of the basic postures like even getting a proper aramandalam (half squat) consistently right, but I pursued on. On the other hand, thanks to all the yoga, am flexible and nimble enough, maybe even more than I ever used to be, so I could easily do a lot of the high kicks and deep stretches that tend to come with a dance dedicated to Lord Shiva.

My first practice back lasted a good two hours. And it felt incredibly good! I have a feeling am going to dance a lot more now!

421 more to go.