personal PROJECT

Around 11 years ago, I started going to a tiny dance studio every Saturday morning. Back then, it was something that I loved to do, something that connected an important part of my heritage to intense physical exercise. I didn’t know, when I was young, that it would quickly become an integral part of my life, something I looked forward to all the time, something that would give me an incomparable love for my culture. The form of traditional Indian dance I do is called Bharatanatyam. It originated from South India, and is composed of intricate dance moves and expression, mainly expressing stories of Hindu gods and worship. At the end of classical indian dance training, the dance teacher decides that the student is ready to showcase everything he or she has learned throughout the years, in a formal solo recital. The recital is normally around 2 hours long and is the epitome of the student’s dance career. I chose this as my personal project, because it allows me to reflect upon something I really care about. The goal of my project is to successfully perform at my recital, and help others become more culturally accepting and aware. A personal project is an outlet to go into depth about something you really care about, and I am thrilled that I was given this opportunity to do so.

The main global context concept/goal for my project is to bridges cultures of traditional indian dance to a wider, more western audience, helping people become more culturally aware and accepting. I think this is really important, because I want to be able to share my culture with everyone in the same way that I was exposed to it. I also think exposure and education to new cultures and traditions is the only way to break harmful and/or demeaning stereotypes. This project strongly ties into personal and cultural expression. As an art form that is about interchanging expressions and intricate footwork, it emanates cultural expression and makes each dance individual and unique, based off of how the dancer decides to tell the story. This project is also very important to me because I have been dancing for such a long time, and been to numerous dance recitals, both professional and other students, along with performed in many while I was learning throughout the years. I had already learned the basic steps and concepts of Bharatanatyam throughout my years of training, so the process of preparing for my dance recital was just to apply those in a more intricate fashion. This equated to it being more physically taxing, but more eye catching. Due to this being such a complex project, it was difficult to research it, apart from learning through watching professional dancers and others students performances. A lot of my training and research was through watching my teacher, and closely following her instructions.

Because this whole project was so big, it was really important to measure it in tiny checkpoints, so I was able to keep track of the progress I was making, and also be able to know how much more I had to learn/achieve. In a typical Arangetram, there are around 7 dances to learn. The longest dance, which is what the entire recital builds to, is anywhere between 30-60 minutes long. Mine was around 53 minutes. This dance is called the Varnam. Each Varnam is about a specific god or goddess, and in mine I portrayed the goddess Parvati. She is known for her embodiment of compassion and love, along with being the strength and energy for her husband, Lord Shiva. Parvati personifies kindness, and it was truly amazing to be able to express her devotion and love in a dance as extensive as a Varnam. The Varnam is split into different sections. There are parts where it is just nritta (pure dance) and also sections of natya (expressions). Both parts work together to tell the story. The Varnam is easily one of the hardest dances to learn throughout the process of learning Bharatanatyam. Once I finished learning this dance, which was a huge milestone in the project process, I knew I was able to do anything in regards to this project. Each step of this project was bookmarked by what dance I was learning, which made it easy to track my progress. Once all of my dances were learned, I had to practice endlessly, to make sure that all of the dances looked as flawless as I could get them to look. While the practice portion was going on, we first had to schedule a meeting with a professional photographer so that I could get pictures taken for invitations, brochures, and just stock photographs for the actual event. The process of getting pictures taken was truly an experience I will always remember. It allowed me to see into the world that a model would have to constantly live in, and I realized that it was a process I could live without doing again. Holding poses, and the endless stream of hearing the shutter click, was harder than all of the dances I had ever learned. It drained me of my energy, but also left me with enormous respect for those who modeled for a living. After pictures were taken, we had to pick pictures to use for the invitation. With all of this going on, time management proved to be integral, as I had to balance out when I practiced and classes along with all the school work I had, along with being able to judge what I should do with the long car rides out to Brunswick (about 45 minutes away, weather permitting). This project really helped to cultivate my time management skills, and made it easy to balance two huge portions of my life, school and dance, with other extracurriculars such as varsity tennis, Model United Nations, Science Olympiad, and so on.

    This project gave me an impactful opportunity to reflect upon something that meant  a lot to me in my life, and I am so grateful for that. It allowed me to set out goals before hand, and feel the satisfaction of achieving them. It also helped me realize that having a different culture and expressing it through an art form made for a more interactive experience, which added to it’s appeal. Global context was very important throughout this project, as I was able to bring together two cultures that would not have been able to mix otherwise in an environment similar to a dance performance. I am thrilled that I could achieve my goals, and make a difference to the way Indian culture is perceived and understood. A large portion of this project was training my body physically, but I also learned important thinking skills. I needed to be able to keep a cool mind, regardless of the situation, and I also learned to realize that some things were out of my control, so nothing I would do could help some situations. I learned to hone in on one goal, to make sure that my body was doing what it needed to do in order to pull off a good performance. I also learned important communication skills. I also needed to be able to compromise with different people on multitudes of platforms, because this Arangetram is a culmination of many people’s hard work and visions rolled into one.

I think this project was perfect in terms of difficulty. It was something I needed to work towards, but it wasn’t something that I was overboard and swamped with all the work I had to complete. I think that one of the main struggles I faced with this project was making sure that I was performing the dances perfectly. Trying to be physically fit for this performance was insane work, as I had never done anything as physically taxing before in my life. I spent hours and hours sore, but it was definitely worth it. It’s hard work to always make sure you’re keeping your back straight with your arms perfectly aligned, and smiling through everything regardless of how tired your body is. Although many times, after an especially hard class or tough practice, I would question why I continued to dance. These feelings would quickly disappear, as I realized that this pure, traditional dance form, has been with me since I was little, and became a way I identified myself and connected with my culture. This project definitely made me a better IB learner, and developed numerous skills necessary to be a successful student. I became more open-minded as I learned more about my culture. Although I had grown up with it, the religion and heritage is so complex, that I was always able to learn more about it, through my dance teacher, parents, family friends, and others. This project also helped me develop skills such as taking risks. I became more of a risk-taker because I introduced many westerners to a culture and a religion that they are completely unaware about, not knowing how they would react or if they would like it. Not only did dance help me grow as a person, through compassion and devotion to an art form, it also helped me grow as a student and future employee, helping me learn skills that are necessary and valuable to becoming a better person. Because my love for dance has immensely been cultivated through this project, I am considering helping out with other dance teachers or helping teach some workshops. This project impacted my life in gratifying ways, and I am so thankful that I was able to turn a passion into a thoughtful, reflective project.