Great week with passionate dancers & more passionate organizers :
Last week we were in Manchester invited by MILAP FEST to be the tutors at Dance India.
It was one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL experiences in our lives.
MILAPFEST headed by Dr.Prashanth Nayak brings the finest in Arts to the UK through performances of world class artists, workshops,provides,fellowships for the aspirants & treats the art enthusiasts in the most beautiful way.
We are so fortunate to be associated with MILAP for 5 years now.
They have organized fantastic tours of us & our ADC.
Their vision is noble yet RICH. They are humble & yet spectacular.
Over the years they have built an EXCELLENT TEAM of high efficiency.
To top it all ,they are very kind,warm people who treat artists with love & respect.
A rare combination indeed !
Fortunate are the ones who associate with MILAP :)
Anyways ...
DANCE INDIA:
Was the dream of 105 students from 15 countries hungry to learn !
Students of various origin ,nationalities ,ages all totally enthusiastic & ready to explore rather explode with the passion for dance.
Oh What a time ! O god ,it was soooooooooo beautiful to be with all the enthusistic people filled with madness for Arts.
It was so wonderful to be amidst people of eminence like Kummiben,Leela Samson,Madhavi Mudgal.
Then our dear colleagues & friends Priya Govind , Sheejit Parvathy Vijayanthi & Pratheeksha,Samyuktha & Arushi Mudgal.
We were all eating breathing walking talking & living dance together.
What an honor!
The time table was filled with activities beginning with warm ups for 75 mins , then intensive dancing for 5 hours plus one hour of self practise time, lec dems on topics like lighting,make up, abhinaya, Hastas etc & the evenings featured 90 minute performance by the tutors.
VENUE: Manchester - UK
We were placed in a Hotel ( Holiday INN EXpress) which was at the bed of this beautiful water front & on the other side was the LOWRY studio. we used to walk by the side of this river that had White Swans & ducks swimming around. Connecting the two places was a beautiful pathway of gorgeous trees. With cool breeze & lil showers here & there we used to walk ...sing along to the dance venue :)
This was SOME venue with 3 professional theatres & 7 studios...best part of that one of the walls of the dance studio would be of glass & you lookout & it you see the soothing river flow :)
OPENING:
The event opened with a nice ceremony in the morning in one of the studios & all students got to see their mentors ,enjoyed the lighting of the lamp, the opening address by Vyjayanthi kashi began very well with pointers to the dance tradition , the Guru shishya Parampara.
Then came Nahid Siddiqui , a dancer of utmost grace ,someone who is always drunk on dance originally from Pakisthan but still searching for a home as her motherland threw her out just because of she was a dancer.
She shared with all ,her triumphs of being in a community that got her to sign a bond that she would never dance in her life anywhere & how while signing it she said to herself " NOW I WILL DANCE EVERY WHERE & ALL MY LIFE" ...everybody clapped & laughed. Sweetly & lightly she had brought to the attention of all WHAT PASSION REALLY MEANS TO TRUE ARTISTS.
On our keen request Nahidji danced,well she moved just a little & did a salaami & revealed her passion in action.
While the whole studio cheered & clapped i quietly wiped my tears.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
We had about 20 students in our group while Kummiben had 16 & the Bahrathanatyam had a big number like 25 - 27 etc.
The intensive sessions were going really well.
We had beautiful students from UK & even from South Africa.
There was a bit of
One boy who was a street dancer by profession seemed to have loved the abhinaya part which involved singing, using mudras & facial expressions. Everybody loved the energy ( thats what they said)
In one of the warm up sessions ,we had the great fortune to share the Natya Shastra Vocabularies incorporating the Vyayamas & Charis with the 105 students. It was soooooooo beautiful to see them all move,they were all highly excited as these movements gave them a completely different experience. Must say some of the students were brilliant in the moves.
One boy who has been dancing since the age of 4 or 5 , a versatile dancer who has explored odissi bharathanatyam & even Kathak dancer said that he felt the Natya Shastra movements gave him SUCH A GREAT FEEL that all his previous experiences seemed incomplete. I was taken aback !
Wah Bharatha ! Wah Dr.Padma ...Wah my Guru Sundari akka !
The performances of Leela ji & Madhaviji topped the charts.Sanjuktha & Akash rocked in Kummiben's latest Choreography.
Priya's abhinaya was awesome & our performance ofcourse felt very good for, we were sharing lots of love & we wanted to ROCK the students :) the response is that they loved the combi of Tradition & the Modern.
One of them said they thought we two - Rajendra & I looked hot ! (whatever that means ....)
Well....we enjoyed dancing for the students & felt good as we were able to infected them with some Josh !
FOOD :
Special mention to be made of the LUNCH ...sluuuuuuurp !!!
We had a special tutor's table ( ahem) & there were varieties of healthy veggie soups,5-6 diff types of Sandwiches & a GREAT salad....yummy cakes , yougurts & fruits were for desserts....we loved the rich & creamy ones :)
While we were enjoying that the thought of going back to Rice Sambhar & rasam for every afternoon kind of depressed.
Dinner was at 6 pm..( earliest we ve eaten in our lives) with good Indian Meal.That was good too.
Oh ..theres so much more to say ...in the next one ...
hey all, look out for some dancy gossips :)
Till then ...have fun...eat well...& have great energy :)
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