Dancing: Not for the faint hearted

"Mum, can I please cut my hair? Can I get fringes?"

"Of course not! How will you dance?"

"Aunty, can I please cut my hair? Can I get fringes?"

"Sure darling, but please stop coming to dance class."

"Hey, are you coming for the party at ...., this Saturday? Everyone is going to be there and it's going to be the party of the year."

"Hey...well, I'd like to but it's in the afternoon and I have class..."

"Oh...well can't you skip?"

"I have a show in two months..I can't...I can't believe I will miss it! Uggghh"

Those are just a few conversations that are likely to happen between you and mum, teacher and friends, if you learn dance, or it should be.

I've been learning dance, almost since I was born. I have been teaching dance for the past 16 years. And whilst I will say that dancing for pleasure, leisure or fun is for everyone, professional dancing is not. I am sure most dance teachers, students and connoisseurs will agree after they read this.

Dancing is about passion. More importantly, dancing is about commitment and hard work. Dancing is about sacrifice and love.

When it comes to Bharata Natyam, there is a strict adherence to a dancer's lifestyle. A Bharatha Natyam dancer will pay keen attention to body posture; straight back even when exahsuted; grace that is endearing and sometimes belies actual physical and mental state. A Bharatha Natyam dancer will maintain an old fashioned hair do to keep it healthy (and easier to work with when styling it for stage) even though she often ponders styling it in the latest fashion. This dancer will time and time again, forsake to-do's and events because she has practice - it is 100% commitment! And boy, does it lead to satisfaction. That moment when you are dancing almost leisurely, your legs in a perfect plie, Your footwork in perfect rhythm to the complex steps of music that you have grown to love. Your hands moving with precision that seems effortless, and the story you are imparting moving you and all around you to feeling the breath of the story!

A lot has changed. These days, dancing is often about achievements, and then passion. It is about doing everything else, and then dance. It is about fun (which is good) but with less of the hard work. So, what has gone wrong? Why is it that parents will approach you and say," I want our daughter to do her Arangetram," (loosely translates to dance graduation) and then proceed to tell you she has exams, but the last 3 months she is in the country, she is all yours and will only dance! Sounds perfect - 3 months of only dance and then taking on the stage and having a brilliant performance! And believe me it is possible. But the underlying philosophy of it is wrong. Getting to the point of Arangetram is not the work of a strenuous 3 months - it is the beginning, of the final product of months, if not years of consistent work and improvement. It is the culmination of the love you have for an art into something you will treasure all your life. It is not a school exam that you study for, pass and move forward, or fail and retake. It is the blossoming of an artist!

The big dilemma for dancers still in school, or those that work is, priorities. It is not wrong to take a few days off from dance class to study for your exams, or to attend a work meeting. But ask yourselves this, would you use that break you take between physics and maths to try a dance step you have been struggling with? Would you say no to that after work drink with colleagues because you needed to rehearse? The key is balance!

I believe the fundamentals need to stay intact - Dancing is not for the faint hearted. It involves pain, fatigue, sacrifice! It involves a love for the art, a drive to never give it up and the will to let it become an intimate part of your every day life. When you have cried because your feet are hurting, but still continue dancing; when you are at the brink of throwing in the towel and find yourself trying, one more time, to perfect that dance sequence that has been bothering you for months; and when you willingly let go of other things in order to dance - Then, you are a dancer!