Sunday, December 20, 2009

I danced!

People often ask me, what is contemporary dance? I flounder, I stutter and stammer, but I don't think I can ever explain properly. Let me try again. Contemporary dance has been derived from modern dance. It has influences of jazz ballet. Usually, contemporary dance is performed on music, (with no lyrics) and on music with less or no beats(rhythm). It is more about the natural movement of the body. On the first day of class, our Sir asked to "unlearn" everything we knew about dancing, and to start afresh. In contemporary, your body has to be free like a child's.

I hope I was successful in explaining the concept of contemporary dance. If not, you can always check out this video when you're not slumping over your desk, looking for coffee and reading my blog instead ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T46QKfRbYP8

On D-Day, we wore our costumes and headed towards the make-up room to get our make-up done. Everyone's hair was supposed to be tied up in a bun and after my make-up, I went to get my hair tied up. The lady kept saying, "Tsk tsk, your hair is too silky" and inserting another hairpin to stop it from tumbling over. Later when I removed all of them, the count came to 28! Costumes and make-up ready, we all prayed together for an awesome show. Finally, when the show started, we were all complaining of cramps due to nervourness. I guess no matter how many times you practise, you do feel nervous before the show starts.

The theme of the show was "Life and Love" which our Sir explained at the beginning of the show. First, 3 advanced batch students performed on a number. Next, a beautiful teacher-student relationship was shown by Meghna and Radhika on the song called "Heaven". Our dance of quick love was performed on a musical piece amidst flashing red lights. We felt we are practically dancing in the dark, but I guess the agony of quick love was shown through it. Me and my partner Puneet, exchange the following dialogue

Puneet: "Hey"

Me: "Hi"

Puneet: "ASL?"

Me: "23, Female, Pune. And you?"

P: "23, Male, Pune... Have you ever thought of love?"

Me: "Umm.. I am now that you're asking me about it"

And we start with the dance. At first we are dancing with the joy of a new relationship, but before long, we are dancing in agony of love too soon. At the end of the piece, Puneet exchanges the same lines with another girl, showing that love in this age gets over as quickly as it starts. Before I knew it, it was over! I danced though, I danced with all my heart and strength. I can't wait to see the video.

Next was an amazing choreography on the song "Ave Maria". It is a very slow song and the best part about the choreography was that at a time only one person was dancing, while the others walked behind in random lines to show people going about their normal lives. The effect was stupendous, according to me. Last of course was "New Day Has Come" by Celine Dion. Again, amazing choreography by our Sir, where 3 girls started first and 2 girls started 16 beats later with the same steps. The best part was that even 16 beats later, the same steps were in complete sync with the lyrics. The depiction of rain as hands randonly going up and down amazed me each and every time I saw that performance.

Finally, we all took our bows and received a rose each from Sir. It was a truly wonderful experience and I hope the next time I am a part of more difficult sequences. I can't wait for the next batch to start!

Any of you, interested in joining, the next batch will start on 4th Jan, 2010. You can email me on the blog feedback ID and I can provide you with more details. You can also log on to

http://www.hrishikeshpawar.com/

A special word of mention for all my friends who came to see my show. I felt really nice that you were there to encourage me. Thanks :D

1 comment:

  1. Stunning performance and an amazing amazing show :)

    ReplyDelete