The Performance on the 25th June

This was to be our toughest performance till date. We (the three of us) were to perform the 'Varnam' and the thillana. The Varnam is the most important piece in any dance recital, as it tests the Abhinaya (Bhava), Nritta and stamina. A varnam is usually about 25-30 minutes long. Till now, the longest we've danced continuously (as a single song) is about 15 minutes, so this was going to stretch us. Moreover, we have to depict stories through the varnam and thus our bhava must be excellent.

A few days before that, on the 20th we had another performance in a temple. For the first time, our performance was not good :-(. yeah i will admit, it was bad. Not that we made any mistakes or we forgot our steps..i mean we've been dancing way too long for that, plus we've had our practices. But it was just that the performance was lacking somewhere. For lack of a better word, you could say 'there was no soul'. And for the first time ever, our dance teacher told us openly that she was disappointed. Our teacher is not the one to praise easily, of course, but she will call a spade a spade.

Thus, we were inspired to prove ourselves this time. Daily practices in the evening were arraged. More efforts to train ourselves and increase our stamina. We did give it our everything this time.

And it payed off. :-)

It is widely regarded as my best performance till date. And again, a first!!! My teacher called me up that late that night itself, and said it was really good. Enough to send me into seventh heaven. Didn't come down for more than a day afterward :-) It meant a tremendous deal to me.

Next up, we have our biggest show. A complete show only by the three of us in October. Gonna be one healluva thing!

Exercises for the Neck

I thought I'd start with the part of the body that gives me the maximum trouble.

Golden Rules:(for all body parts)
1. Learn to differentiate between a "stretch" pain and a sharp pain. Stretch pain is good but sharp pain is a complete NO. If it hurts sharply, stop at once.
2. When in doubt, refer Rule 1.

The neck needs to be treated very very gently, for obvious reasons.

Ones that can be done at work, multiple times a day:

1. For starters, just drop your neck such that the chin touches the chest. The back must be straight. Shoulders must be straight too, with no hunch. Hands can be placed on the arm rests such that the elbow makes a 90 degree angle with the upper arm, or place your hands in your lap. Feet completely flat on the ground, and the leg making 90 degree angle with the thigh. Stay this way for at least 15 seconds.

2. Tilt the neck backwards, as far as possible i.e. chin is pointing towards the sky. Rest of the body remains as in (1). 10-15 seconds again.

3. Turn the head to your right, preferrably at 90 degrees from the straight, but keep in mind the golden rules. There should be no upward or downward tilt. Stay for a few seconds. Turn Left now. Alternate a few times.

4. A complete roll of the head. Starting position: Refer (1) above. Now, start making a slow circle by tilting you neck towards the right. Remember, in this case, when you reach the side, the position of your head will be different from how it was in (3) above. The correct position when the neck is turned to the side is where the ear is as close as possible to the shoulder. Do not lift your shoulder. A complete round should not take less than 8 seconds. Repeat in both directions a few times each.

Other often repeatd points:

a) The eye should be in line with the top of the monitor/screen.
b) Blink often
c) Look away frequently
d) Do not ever hunch, no matter what.

A few that can be done once a day:

Please be careful while attempting these

5. Link your fingers behind your back such that the palms face inward (towards your back)...at probably your hip level. The hands must be straight..so straighten those elbows...and the shoulders must pull backward. Now, keeping those elbows straight, slowly lift the hand as high as possible. Now, very slowly, I repeat, slowly, do exercises (1) and (2) from above.

6. Stand facing your back to a window such that you can grip the windows with your hands, and elbows bent. Now hold the grill with both your hands at say, the mid-back height and straighten your elbows, without moving your feet....i.e you will have to lean forward. Keep elbows straight and shoulders back and slowly, repeat exercises (1) and (2)

While sleeping:

I dont advise you to sleep without a pillow, but if you do, thats great. Otherwise use a thin pillow and make sure only the head is on it and not the complete neck. Don't sleep on your stomach.

These should help the neck pain. Exercises (5) and (6) are great for the shoulder also. The first few days will be painful but you should start feeling better within a few days of doing these religiously.

There are more..basically variations to the same..I'll expain them if needed. Let me know the results.

Dance Exercises for Daily Life

The Whys:

Until we got out of college, most of us led very active lives. The need for streching exercises were non-existant. Now, most of our time, we spend in front of computers. This creates a lot of strain, I believe the medical term for this is RSI- Repetitive Stress Injury. Even, we, dancers, who know the need for good posture and good exercise, fall prey to all this. I hear so many many people complain of back pain, neck pain, sholder pain, knee pain and so on. I am one of them too. Most of us just ignore the symptoms, hoping it will go away, or pop a few pills or at the best (i'd say worst) case, do a few exercises till the pain goes away, and forget about it. Looking at all this, I thought I'd share what I know, so it may help others lead relatively pain free lives, at least where they can avoid it.

Note: I do not have a medical degree nor do I promise to cure people!!!!! I'm going to share what I know and what I've learnt from dance. Please be advised that you are reading this at your own risk!

The Hows:

Aaah..this is tricky..I plan to just explain what needs to be done..and supplement it with diagrams or photos, if needed! Volunteers for sketching are most welcome!!!

The Whens:

Hopefully in the next few weeks, unless there are other pressing concerns. I plan to devote many hours a week to this.

Learning the Dhrupad

We've been trying to learn the Dhrupad for almost a month now. I can safely say that this is the longest time we've taken to learn any one piece, except the varnam!

I know that Dhrupad is a form of hindustani classical music, which has been successful in retaining its original form all along and is sung in sanskrit.

Been trying to figure out if this is the same dhrupad we refer to in dance. It's quite difficult to do that, since not many people have choreographed a dhrupad..but will keep at it!The only similarity I see till now is that both are in sanskrit!!

Before we started out, we were under the impression that the dhrupad mostly involves chaaris like mathhalli. Little did we know that it would turn out to be such a heavy piece. And to think we thought nee nee jatheeshwaram and shankara sri giri were difficult.

Essence of Dance

yato hastas tato dristir yato dristir tato manaha
yato manas tato bhaavo yato bhaavas tata rasaha.

Where the hand goes there go the eyes
Where the eyes go there goes the mind
Where the mind goes there goes the feeling
Where the feeling goes there follows the aesthethic essence