SICK.. but not because of DANCING

I feel pathetically sick today after a long time. I've been sick since Sunday.. and it got worse this Monday.. today i am feeling a lil better. Most of them that i know are sick.. the virus was hopping around happily with its ugly teeth and fierce eyes as i could imagine.. "sigh" this is so de-motivating..

Last Sunday was my first bharathanatyam class with Master Sri Anand. My new Guru whom is going to polish me into my pre-arangetram training. It was a tough, but an awesome class. Though i came back with that famous thigh-breaking pain.. i enjoyed every single minute of that 2 hour class.. oh and yes, He is actually my fourth Dance Guru.

I started my dance journey at the age of 6 to 9 with Geetha shankaran under the school Fine Arts, but i was learning Oddissi at that time. After about 3 years of moving the oddissi moves dad suggested me to learn the art of bharatham. Of course at that time anything was ok for me when it comes to dancing. But the actual reason i moved to another variety of dance was because Dad claimed that oddissi was a bit to slow and for 3 years i was still doing the basics. Well no prejudice here, but if many noticed.. oddissi is performed by dancers whom are almost 11 and plus. This is because there is a need of maturity when you dance oddissi as oddissi is heavily based on "rasa" and "perfection". Well that is why when you start young as a child you wont perform but the Guru's will train and polish you so that you will be just nice when your at the age of showing and portraying that art, as an involved and mature dancer. Sometimes i do regret why i didn’t continue to learn oddissi. Well at that time, i was not able to make any justifications but i am still very very happy to be a bhratham dancer. Luckily i stood for my rights to continue this art no matter what. But of course all this would have not appeared just like that. I have great motivating parents that encouraged me to dance and perform till today. This is something i can't thank them much. To give me this freedom to be in a different world when i dance.. and dance and dance...

Well coming from where i left earlier. After my last day with Guru Geetha, dad enrolled me under the school of Jeya Nirtha Kalalayam when i was trained under Guru Sironmani Sri Kumuthini Sivanathan.. I was learning under her for 11 years. It was under her that i performed my solo "salangai pooja" dance performance at the age of 16 ' year 1997'. Btw "Salangai poojai" is a ceremonial dance performance where the dancer will be wearing the "Salangai" or leg bell ornaments which will be worn by her Dance Guru for the first time. This ceremony is to tell the audience that this is my first school graduation and from now onwards i am allowed to perform infront of many people, Because without having the salangai pooja, we are not allowed to dance with the salangai in front of people (Ofcourse now many of these traditions have change ;) ) hence after the ceremony i performed 7 songs in between 3 hours to potray my knowledge in this art... That was a day i will never forget. Together with excitement and nervousness i danced.. with all my heart.

After learning under Guru Kumuthini, i had to pause my classes as i was pursuing my degree course. And after 3 to 4 years i joined another Guru under her dance school Jeyashree Bharatha Alayam as Kumuthini teacher was not teaching much due to her age catching up on her. I was 23 then. Wasn’t i only 23 but i think i gained about 10Kg's to 15Kg due to my Degree Course break. Damn! that break of 3 to 4 years changed my lifestyle. Well nothing much actually, i was not doing anything else but studying, eating and sleeping.. and all the pounds creped on me easily. At that time when i joined Jeyashree teacher even worst complications came that i could not continue my classes as usual because of my ridiculous shift hours at work. I was in Shell by then after my degree. Due to that i attended classes inconsistently. Though i could still perform in temple's and in school dance drama's for the last 3 year i was inconsistent with my weekly classes that left me with doubt on whether i would be able to perform my arengetram. At that time, which was about few months ago my dance Guru Jeyashree whom was 6 months pregnant said that she might not have classes anymore due to her future new born, and that took me by shock. But the best part was before i could tell jeyashree akka about my dream she quickly told me “i will suggest you to My guru Master Sri Anand, and he will prepare your for your arangetram” and so on. I was overjoyed with happiness. Although i received many warnings that he is extremely strict, i only had one thing in my mind.. well all Guru's are strict and I am going there to learn about being an arangetram student.. perhaps a dance teacher one day... so what.. i put their scary statements aside and attended class last Sunday. And to my amazement, with my respect to him... he was teaching me with much happiness. I think he could see in my eyes that i had passion for this dance.. thank God...

Well coming back to my first para, why am i pulling my dance story in.. hmm.. oh ya.. because my mom said that i got sick because of my dance class.. i was like what!! No way.. it can't be it.. and all.. I was actually sick, but to proof my mom wrong about the dance part, i practiced my dance on Monday evening.. During that practice i was perfectly alright.. i was back to normal.. that i was prepared to go to work the next day. But it didn’t seem so. Tuesday told me to stay on bed completely. Mom’s warning was true.. but there goes another day.. ”Well I told you.. but you don’t listen to me.. miow miow miow” and I got even worst. Medication surely did help me today though. I am much better now.. just that my throat is aching. Luckily i only had to type here.. not talk or else i think there will be vomiting blood.. "isk isk"

Anyway this is my personal note.. sick sick go away, please don’t come another day...i can't wait to practice my dance.. or else i might get that scolding that i am trying to avoid this Sunday.. go away .. go away.. hush hush…

Please go away.....

P/S Arangetram is a dance performance that has tough beats, steps, deep expressions and moves with a challenging stamina that tests a dancer to proof to the audience and her Guru that she/he is a qualified dancer. From there she/he could choose to undergo training of nattuvangam (a musical instrument to be used in dance performance) to be a Guru. From there on this qualified Guru can begin to run her own school to nurture this art.