Hello everyone,
Before I write about how I'm feeling in general, I'd like to tell you all about an amazing opportunity I had on Sunday. Padatik Dance Centre, Kolkata has for the last 6 years organised a Kathak Marathon, this year was it's 7th year. It's an all day event of Kathak solo performances with live musicians. The idea is to develop the dancers' improvisation skills since they have no rehearsal opportunities with the musicians at all. The performances started at 10am and finished well after 9pm, and I got to stay pretty much all day. I only missed the first two soloists. I went with Aunty's youngest son who was a Kathak dancer when he was younger before he decided to pursue his Carnatic singing professionally instead. There was an hour's break in between the morning session and afternoon session and then again between the afternoon session and the evening session, so we went to a well-known restaurant called Haldiram's, 100% Veg (yay!), in both the breaks.
The soloists were a mix of junior and senior performers' and each session finished with a performance of a professional Kathak dancer. Most of the dancers were stunning, but speaking to Aunty's son he explained why some of them weren't yet professional, it was interesting because I hadn't even noticed the things he had. At the end of the morning session Anurekha Ghosh performed. I've been a fan of her YouTube channel for a while and have looked into her London-based dance company, but I never imagined I'd get to see her live! She has a unique style of Kathak but I love it and she always has interesting costumes. The afternoon session ended with Parwati Dutta who is a disciple of Pt. Birju Maharaj, who is basically the father of Kathak. I loved her performance because she's trained in the same school of Kathak as me; Lucknow Gharana. The evening session ended with a spectacular performance; Ashim Bandhu Bhattacharya, who is an extremely well-known Kathak Guru here in West Bengal peformed along with Sandip Mullick who is one of the top performers in Kolkata and West Bengal, as well as Souvik Chakraborty who is on a par with Sandip Mullick. They performed one piece together, then a solo each and then they came together and did a huge improvisation together. The atmosphere was amazing because these guys are the top of the Kathak scene here in Kolkata and watching them just improvise with the tabla player on stage was phenomenal. Oh, I should mention that these three dancers are all men, as a male dancer I enjoy watching other male dancers more than female dancers because I can identify with them more. Throughout all three sessions there were only three male soloists, as in not the three at the end. My favourite performer of the whole event was Manab Parai, he's a first year Kathak MA student at the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata.
Before I write about how I'm feeling in general, I'd like to tell you all about an amazing opportunity I had on Sunday. Padatik Dance Centre, Kolkata has for the last 6 years organised a Kathak Marathon, this year was it's 7th year. It's an all day event of Kathak solo performances with live musicians. The idea is to develop the dancers' improvisation skills since they have no rehearsal opportunities with the musicians at all. The performances started at 10am and finished well after 9pm, and I got to stay pretty much all day. I only missed the first two soloists. I went with Aunty's youngest son who was a Kathak dancer when he was younger before he decided to pursue his Carnatic singing professionally instead. There was an hour's break in between the morning session and afternoon session and then again between the afternoon session and the evening session, so we went to a well-known restaurant called Haldiram's, 100% Veg (yay!), in both the breaks.
The soloists were a mix of junior and senior performers' and each session finished with a performance of a professional Kathak dancer. Most of the dancers were stunning, but speaking to Aunty's son he explained why some of them weren't yet professional, it was interesting because I hadn't even noticed the things he had. At the end of the morning session Anurekha Ghosh performed. I've been a fan of her YouTube channel for a while and have looked into her London-based dance company, but I never imagined I'd get to see her live! She has a unique style of Kathak but I love it and she always has interesting costumes. The afternoon session ended with Parwati Dutta who is a disciple of Pt. Birju Maharaj, who is basically the father of Kathak. I loved her performance because she's trained in the same school of Kathak as me; Lucknow Gharana. The evening session ended with a spectacular performance; Ashim Bandhu Bhattacharya, who is an extremely well-known Kathak Guru here in West Bengal peformed along with Sandip Mullick who is one of the top performers in Kolkata and West Bengal, as well as Souvik Chakraborty who is on a par with Sandip Mullick. They performed one piece together, then a solo each and then they came together and did a huge improvisation together. The atmosphere was amazing because these guys are the top of the Kathak scene here in Kolkata and watching them just improvise with the tabla player on stage was phenomenal. Oh, I should mention that these three dancers are all men, as a male dancer I enjoy watching other male dancers more than female dancers because I can identify with them more. Throughout all three sessions there were only three male soloists, as in not the three at the end. My favourite performer of the whole event was Manab Parai, he's a first year Kathak MA student at the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata.
Anurekha Ghosh!
Parwati Dutta
Manab Parai
Ashim Bandhu Bhattacharya, Sandip Mullick and Souvik Chakraborty
So let's move on to how things are generally. To be honest I can't really tell from one day to the next. If we start with dance and class. That is so much better, I'm enjoying it most of the time now. I have loads more energy, I can sit in araimandi (demi-plié) so much lower now and without too much pain, I don't get as thirsty. So all of that is good. Mallabika Sen even complimented me the other day! I've completely finished the Natesha Kavutwam, which means not only being able to dance it but also dance it well, know the song off by heart and be able to count the beat whilst singing it. I'm now learning the Shiva Panchakshara Stotram and after that I'll be learning the Shivashtakam. Also the girls that are often there during my class, the ones I have to do class in front of, are learning to sing the dance songs properly so now I often dance whilst they sing, it's quite fun because we're all working on something together then.
The thing that isn't so great here is when the language barrier leads to misunderstandings and anger and irritation and offence. I find the best way to deal with this is to block it out of my mind, because if I think about too much, it makes me stress and then that effects my dancing. I've decided to assess my situation here at the end of December and decided if I want to stay longer and how long for. I'm not saying I'm unhappy but just that I have a lot of questions about this experience and I feel that at the end of December I'll be able to address them properly.
In other news Aunty took me to the World Yoga Society today and I am now an enrolled member and have special classes three times a week. The doctor there has instructed that I get special care because he's a friend of Aunty. So we'll see how that goes! Initially I was dreading the idea of yoga but the doctor was so nice and enthusiastic that I'm feeling better about the whole thing. I've also written a timetable of all the classes at Ekdalia and Gariahat campuses during the week so that I can get myself to them to watch and don't have to spend too much time alone.
So things aren't bad, but I do feel I have a love-hate relationship with India.
(If you're reading this and you have me on Facebook, there are loads more photos from the Kathak Marathon on there so check them out!)
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