Article Analysis: How Hema Ramaswamy Found Healing Through Traditional Indian Dance

Byline: Arun Venugopal

Source: NPR

Read or listen to the article here.

This was an article that was originally aired on NPR. It was about a woman named Hema, age 23, who has Down syndrome. She has learned and Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam, as have I. In this dance form there is a level where you “graduate” and do a solo-performance that consists of 10 dances called an arangetram. To prepare for it takes an immense amount of effort and time, and Hema has done it.

The two quotes in the article were attributed to Hema herself and her father. The audio captures only Hema’s voice. Because the article is about Hema’s achievement and not a “breaking news” article, there is not much opinion or sides to take, only happy feelings for Hema. The lead is a great way to tie cultures together and familiarize the unfamiliar listeners/readers with an arangetram. There is not much varied sentence structure, because it is just narraration.

My favorite line from the article is:

“‘I feel so happy in dancing,’ she beams, surrounded by a flurry of doting aunties while preparing for her performance.”

There are so many visuals and emotions in this sentence– it is amazing. I can imagine all the aunties fixing her hair and fussing over her makeup in their saris, as well as hear her happiness knowing that she is confident and will perform the best that she can.