My Journey in Dance.
It all began when I was a kid dancing to a random song played on television. I used to participate in all cultural events in my primary school and then one day when I was studying in grade 6, I saw an advertisement regarding an academy called The Rainbow Academy of Music and Dance. It was during my summer holidays and I thought why waste our time? let’s go give it a try! To my surprise, they only taught Bharatnatyam. But soon after I attended my first class, I made good friends there; so I continued to attend my classes until when they started thinking I was my Guru’s favorite. It was because she always made me stand in the front which meant that they would have to follow me and she also used to use me as an example. It hurt me as I considered them as my friends but they weren’t happy with my growth. All of us had the same opportunity. If only we made use of it properly this wouldn’t have been the case.
Sounds silly to me now, but back then it was the main reason why I became serious about dance. I realized a lot of things like:
First, I love to dance.
Second, I had to fight against my mom to attend my classes and then she let me.
Third, I lost my friends.
So it was more of an escape mechanism that I spent all my time with my Guru when I attended classes. Then slowly, I started to analyze the flaws in my dance, and then I put in efforts to make them my strengths.
Salangai pooja is the completion of the first level in classical. The night before my big day, I was very nervous and self-conscious because my mom never came to see me dance when all of the students’ parents did; but thanks to my Guru she always found a way to lift me up. Then it’s my big day! I’m getting ready, climbing up the stage and we are performing. After the photo session, my mom came to see me. I was worried about how she was going to react and she said that I could continue to dance. I couldn’t ask for more. It was all that I needed back then. To be accepted and understood by my Mom. Tears filled my eyes and we happily headed home.
In the beginning, our batch had 8 students then it dropped to 0. All of us had crossed grade 9 so our parents told us all to concentrate only on our studies. But dance had already become a huge part of my life that not attending my classes affected my mental health, so I joined my classes again and I passed my grade 10 with good grades. Then years passed on with me helping my Guru teach my juniors. The little happiness that I got when they came to me and said I want to dance like you one day Akka! This kept me going.
24th. June.2019, was when I did my Arangetram. I still remember the pain I had gone through to get here. All the fights, friends that I had to forget, and the pain of not being understood by my own parent. Every time my body ached, I told myself “No pain, no gain". We had a lot of live practices and my Gurus' uncle used to show up. He was very strict and words weren’t needed for him to make us cry just one look was enough. It was 3 of us so even if one student made a mistake we had to dance from the start. One of my fellow mates was never focused and I don’t think I have to add anything to what would have next.
It went well, I made my family proud. From that moment onwards, my mom let me do what I want to and it is something that I earned. I could have quit dancing just like what my sister did but I didn’t. So I realized that dancing was very important to me.
Currently, I’m teaching kids under the guidance of my Guru. I’ve been doing this for about 2.5 years. I make sure to teach what I know systematically and precisely. I want to do justice to my job, so I always make sure that I teach them about posture maintaining, balance and focus. I believe that dance itself is a form of meditation because when I dance, it’s not my conscious mind playing its part. I forget all about myself. All that I know while dancing is when the music plays, my body and soul play along with it. So, if one is not focused there is no use in dancing.
The more I dance Bharatnatyam the more I realize its uniqueness, logic behind every ‘adavu’, and its effect on our mind, body, and soul. So I hope to teach this form in the future by running a non-profit academy just like my Guru. I want to teach as many students as I can, in order to grow this art form as well as to provide mental relief to my students. I will shed my knowledge that I have about Bharatnatyam without any partiality to anyone who wants to learn this form. The main reason behind all this is my daddy. Every time I danced, he loved it! He used to film it and kept watching it. So I also want to grow as a dancer for him. Though he isn’t here to support or guide me anymore, I am sure that I’d be making his soul happy! This is the only thing I can do as a reciprocation to what he has done for me.
