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.
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.
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