Hello,
Another update from Kolkata :)
Yesterday I went to a performance of Rituranga. Rituranga or Riturongo as it's pronounced in Bangla, is a dance programme about the seasons based on Rabindranath Tagore's music and poetry. The programme is mainly made up of Bharatanayam. There are Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam elements throughout and one of Aunty's students is also trained in Kathak so she performs Kathak in a few of the pieces. The whole thing is choreographed by Guru Smt. Thankamani Kutty aka Aunty. Rituranga has been around the world and most recently did a tour of Australia. Yesterday's performance came at the end of some kind of conference. It was held at the Swiss Hotel in New Kolkata. It was really surreal going from the outside world of New Kolkata, which is basically miles and miles of construction sites because it's still being built and into the swanky, air-conditioned hotel. It could easily have been in the middle of Paris or New York.
Now I am in no position to critique the work of such an infamous Guru but I do have my own opinions on Rituranga. It was a stunning performance with so many beautiful colours but personally I am a bit of a purist when it comes to Bharatanatyam, I like the classical items from the traditional repertoire, I like the classical carnatic music. Rabindranath's music, although beautiful, only really appeals to Bengali's in my opinion. There were also a few pieces performed in Mohiniyattam costume because they had a lot of Mohiniyattam elements in them. To the trained eye the elements were obvious but even so I, personally, would have liked to have seen some pure Mohiniyattam in there. Either it was a spectacular performance and I had front row seats again, along with Senjuti Sengupta's father. (Senjuti is the dancer from Pratibha Utsav I wrote about)
On the weekends I don't have dance class, instead I go to Ekdalia and spend the morning there sleeping, resting and doing my own practice. I did do practice but it's never as hard as what I do in class because I don't push myself enough... clearly something I need to work on. This evening I went to Girija Aunty's Gariahat class again. They're not the best dancers but I like watching Girija Aunty teach and they do items I particularly like. I then stayed for class afterwards, the one that had those three amazing boys in the other week. Sadly only 4 out of 10 students turned up tonight, but two of the guys were amongst the 4 so no complaints!
So independence. Well, basically everytime I go to Ekdalia or Gariahat these days, I walk there by myself. I've started to walk with my iPod as well now. This allows me to take in everything around me more, I like being about to switch of the sounds of the streets and add in my own soundtrack to what I'm seeing. There's always something to look at, this morning there was a woman jogging along with a door on her head, that made me smile. On the way to Gariahat there are some really good sari stalls which I get a glance at whilst walking past. It feels good to be walking somewhere with a goal, it makes me feel less like an outsider.
In other news I've stopped taking my malaria tablets for now because they may have been the reason for my negative moments. Depression is often a side-effect of them. So we'll see if I feel more positive in general now, I think I do. I still have to struggle with everyone thinking I'm, in simple English, too fat to be a dancer but I try not to let it bother me because I don't really care what others think, I can't. I need to get to a point in my mind when I can ignore the exhaustion, the tiredness and the pain and just keep pushing and dancing. At the moment I barely get to the pain because my body fizzles out before it gets there. Something just needs to click in my head when I think, enough is enough. I can't keep giving a half-hearted effort, I have to ignore the limitations of my body and listen to what my heart wants to do, which is dance.
Here are some photos of Ekdalia for you, I know I have been talking about Ekdalia for ages but haven't uploaded in any photos! So here you go
Another update from Kolkata :)
Yesterday I went to a performance of Rituranga. Rituranga or Riturongo as it's pronounced in Bangla, is a dance programme about the seasons based on Rabindranath Tagore's music and poetry. The programme is mainly made up of Bharatanayam. There are Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam elements throughout and one of Aunty's students is also trained in Kathak so she performs Kathak in a few of the pieces. The whole thing is choreographed by Guru Smt. Thankamani Kutty aka Aunty. Rituranga has been around the world and most recently did a tour of Australia. Yesterday's performance came at the end of some kind of conference. It was held at the Swiss Hotel in New Kolkata. It was really surreal going from the outside world of New Kolkata, which is basically miles and miles of construction sites because it's still being built and into the swanky, air-conditioned hotel. It could easily have been in the middle of Paris or New York.
Now I am in no position to critique the work of such an infamous Guru but I do have my own opinions on Rituranga. It was a stunning performance with so many beautiful colours but personally I am a bit of a purist when it comes to Bharatanatyam, I like the classical items from the traditional repertoire, I like the classical carnatic music. Rabindranath's music, although beautiful, only really appeals to Bengali's in my opinion. There were also a few pieces performed in Mohiniyattam costume because they had a lot of Mohiniyattam elements in them. To the trained eye the elements were obvious but even so I, personally, would have liked to have seen some pure Mohiniyattam in there. Either it was a spectacular performance and I had front row seats again, along with Senjuti Sengupta's father. (Senjuti is the dancer from Pratibha Utsav I wrote about)
On the weekends I don't have dance class, instead I go to Ekdalia and spend the morning there sleeping, resting and doing my own practice. I did do practice but it's never as hard as what I do in class because I don't push myself enough... clearly something I need to work on. This evening I went to Girija Aunty's Gariahat class again. They're not the best dancers but I like watching Girija Aunty teach and they do items I particularly like. I then stayed for class afterwards, the one that had those three amazing boys in the other week. Sadly only 4 out of 10 students turned up tonight, but two of the guys were amongst the 4 so no complaints!
So independence. Well, basically everytime I go to Ekdalia or Gariahat these days, I walk there by myself. I've started to walk with my iPod as well now. This allows me to take in everything around me more, I like being about to switch of the sounds of the streets and add in my own soundtrack to what I'm seeing. There's always something to look at, this morning there was a woman jogging along with a door on her head, that made me smile. On the way to Gariahat there are some really good sari stalls which I get a glance at whilst walking past. It feels good to be walking somewhere with a goal, it makes me feel less like an outsider.
In other news I've stopped taking my malaria tablets for now because they may have been the reason for my negative moments. Depression is often a side-effect of them. So we'll see if I feel more positive in general now, I think I do. I still have to struggle with everyone thinking I'm, in simple English, too fat to be a dancer but I try not to let it bother me because I don't really care what others think, I can't. I need to get to a point in my mind when I can ignore the exhaustion, the tiredness and the pain and just keep pushing and dancing. At the moment I barely get to the pain because my body fizzles out before it gets there. Something just needs to click in my head when I think, enough is enough. I can't keep giving a half-hearted effort, I have to ignore the limitations of my body and listen to what my heart wants to do, which is dance.
Here are some photos of Ekdalia for you, I know I have been talking about Ekdalia for ages but haven't uploaded in any photos! So here you go
Ekdalia branch of Kalamandalam Kolkata
Ekdalia again, this is where my classes are usually held. That door you can see on the right is where my suitcases are.
Ekdalia again, this is where my classes are usually held. The room to the right is the second, smaller classroom.
The smaller classroom at Ekdalia
The smaller classroom at Ekdalia
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