I have a show this weekend and for the past one month we have been rehearsing hard for it. With humidity at its peak we sweat it out in the studio till we get that perfection...This is our high...this is our addiction...we don't care about the cuts and bruises, if that is what it takes for a performance that ends in applause and appreciation.
“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”
― Rumi
― Rumi
I have been dancing since forever...in school, at family functions, at birthday parties, here & there and everywhere. But my first formal training was when we had moved to Chennai and I got fascinated with the Bhava (Expression), Raga (Music) and Tala (Rhythm) of 'Bharatnatyam'. I was in Class IV. After three years of a sensual love affair with this classical dance form I bid a tearful goodbye as we moved to Kota, Rajasthan. The next two years swept by, with Ila Arun's folk songs making entry into my dancing dictionary.
Caught up with Life, struggling to catch up with peers in the cat-rat race, I perhaps lost 'Me' somewhere when I came to this big city. I was still a dancer at heart but other than a small performance in the colony's annual function or a competition or function in college, I was ignoring my hearts' calling.
It was only when unemployed with a MBA degree in hand, frustrated with zero turnaround at various interviews, I decided to stand up dance yet again!! And this time around I fell in love with a completely new world....a world of Chaînés, Pirouette, Jete' and many more of such crazy, twirly and fun techniques. I found a new meaning in Life, I discovered and am still discovering a beautiful 'Me'. I owe a lot to dance. It is a part of who I am....With a full time job and family now, I have to priorities a lot but Dance brings in a serene balance in my Life, which i had not known before. These last three years have taught me a lot...Dance is not just something I love to do...it's a way of Life!!
"Dance, for me, is like meditation. You are moving yet you are still. You are reaching out/connecting to the audience but first you have to reach within/connect with yourself. To shine on stage you first have to find that inner light within you!!"