The Rundown

I know, I know, I'm very slow at getting any follow up from the show. But after half a year of preparation, I feel a day or two is an acceptable waiting period.

Overall, the whole performance went really well. There are, of course, things I wished I'd done better - adavus I didn't have the kind of form I'd like to have, occasional hunched shoulders, etc, but I think those are all outweighed by the things that went as well or better than I'd hoped.

By some miracle, I can do a reasonable version of real Bharatanatyam expression! This is really something I never thought I'd get. Dance steps and stuff aren't that different from any other artistic athletic activities, and although still hard, I didn't feel like there was a real barrier to learning. Expression, however, is sooo tied to culture. Most of the girls I dance with have had their whole lives of watching their grannies and TV and absorbing all that so that when it comes time to dance, they have so much to draw on. I, on the other hand, am rich in Irish curse words, but poor in any kind of Indian expression.

Somehow, I've got it together, and the only strategy I had was practice, practice, practice. I guess I did have some natural inclination - as Radha's father put it, "She has big eyes and an expressive face and will go far in life". Indeed, Mr. Sadogopan! But more importantly, unlike rhythmic dance, I could practice expression in the mirror in my room without special space, and so I did. And I guess that paid off.

The other thing that went really well is so many people showed up. My parents, sister, Aunt Jane and Uncle Jerry, friends from Canada Krista and Sharvil, Gaby from NYC, tons of colleagues from work, even more families from dance, and even members of the community who just came by to check it out. It was so awesome! Thank you so much to all of you who came - I hope you all enjoyed the show.

For those of you who missed it, here are some highlights courtesy of my Google team mate Matt Dunlap...

Through the whole process, my Guru Shrimati Mythili Kumar has been amazing and very supportive. I never imagined getting to this level and I thank her for challenging me an believing in my abilities despite the odds. Thank you to Anjana Dasu, my amazing student mentor, who has her own solo show Sunday July 21st at Hoover Theatre that you should all watch! Thanks as well to Lakshmi Venkatesan and Megha Ranganathan for teaching me parts of my repertoire.

None of this would have been possible without all the amazing work the volunteers at Abhinaya contributed. Thank you so, so much to Kjirsten for her helping masterminding it all, to Dinesh Belwalkar for coordinating AV, to Sheelu and Prema Aunties for doing an amazing job on my make up and hair in spite of my complexional challenges - it was very entertaining to hear the discussions that went like 'something something illa white person something something'. There were many many others who all contributed so much - thank you all!

Finally, to my boyfriend Ed and all my friends, thank you for staying with me in spite of not seeing me much for the last few months. I'm looking forward to spending quality time with all of you this summer.

Tomorrow: The Big Day

Last night I finished the final orchestra rehearsal. It was rough, but much better than the stage rehearsal I had on Tuesday, for which I was completely stressed out and exhausted. For the final rehearsal, I was less stressed, and had made an effort to stuff myself with food in the lead up. Now, I'm relaxing, and maybe doing some last minute practice reviews, but mostly, I'm trying to get my mental focus to maximize the awesomeness tomorrow for you, the audience (hopefully).

She's pumped, are you??

For those of you who are on the fence, let me reiterate what's in store for you tomorrow:

• An incredible two hours of action-packed live dance and music!
• Delicious authentic Indian snacks served at intermission!*
• An amazing chance to wear Indian clothes!
• Participate in the happiest clash of cultures ever!]
• It's 100% FREE!

There might be rumours floating around about needing to buy me gifts, but do not be persuaded! Such stories are FALSE!

If you are completely compelled to buy something, you can give a donation to Building Skills Partnership, an NGO that runs English language and computer skills training to janitors and other support staff working around the Bay Area. I've been working with them for 2 years on their Google-based projects, so I can vouch for them as a solid organization.

Thanks to Erin, Adam and Eliza for the amazing fan pic :)

* If you are Gaby, you will instead have delicious authentic gluten-free cuisine.

T minus 1 day!

The Parents have landed!

This afternoon, my parents arrived in the Bay Area. They are staying at a fine establishment in Sunnyvale, close to the heart of the action. I felt bad about not having them stay with me, in spite of the tinyness of my place, but given the current state of my apartment, I thought it would be best.

No Country for Old Parents

Now that they're here, it's another sign that I'm getting closer to the big show. It's nice to have some more cheerleaders around, even if they don't entirely understand what's going on.

T minus 3 days!

What's in a Thillana

In continuing with descripitions of my pieces completely out of order, I will now discuss the Thillana. A Thillana is usually the concluding piece in a Bharatanatyam recital, as well as in carnatic music concerts. It involves mostly nritta, or straight up rhythmic dance. Given that it's the end of the show, it's a real killer.

Fortunately for me, I quite like my Thillana. It is in ragam Dhanasri - ragams are kind of like 'keys' in western music, as best I can tell - which is a really cool ragam. To hear a weird version of what it sounds like, view below (my orchestra will NOT be featuring a saxophonist or a morsing player).

Unlike most thillanas, which only have one line, mine has 3! Originally, this meant I was totally dying by the end of the 15 minute piece. We have since shaved it down, so it's a lot shorter, but it still has 3 different lines.

While most of the dance is just 'dancing' (ie: no miming), there is a single verse at the end describing Lord Krishna Padmanabha (a mistake I made in the first draft of my program), who is one of the lesser-celebrated incarnations of Lord Vishnu. He has a subpar wikipedia page, so all I can tell you about him is what I know from my thillana, which is that 1) He is an incarnation of Vishnu, 2) He is playful, and 3) He removes ones troubles. Frankly, I feel I can be forgiven for mixing him up with Krishna.

The line at the end of the Thillana, and all of them have one, always strikes my as a strange artistic choice. You're going along, perfectly logically, dancing your exhausted little heart out, and then BAM! storytime. The only western equivalent I can think of are the kind of music video that will suddenly cut from a song into some out of nowhere story that you never saw coming. A classic example, perhaps a little dated for you young folks, is Puff Daddy, Ma$e, and the disembodied posthumous voice if Biggy Smalls' Been Around the World, where we we go from perfectly coherent ballin' about the Middle East to... salsa dancing with Jennifer Lopez.

Huh?

The Thillana definitely does a better job of this genre in that it doesn't involve Ma$e. And hey, who doesn't want to hear a story about the gods? If you didn't, surely you would have left by now.

T minus 6 days!

Practice makes long weekend seem longer

Today was the first day of my 4 day weekend - which, of course, would be a holiday, but for dance practice. Unfortunately, my mind and body both think it should be holiday time, so focusing on practice today was like pulling teeth.

First, I memorized the demo for my varnam. A demo is the description of a Bharatanatyam piece that the performer gives before the piece, including gestures from the abhinaya. This is particularly useful to audience members who aren't familiar with Bharatanatyam since it explains what the miming gestures in the piece mean. At any rate, as of this morning I hadn't memorized any demos, so I have some work to do. Now, I've got 1/4!

After that, it was time to straighten out the tattimittu for my varnam. These are the final rhythmic steps before the end of the varnam that accompany the miming gestures that tell the last part of the varnam story. Performing them is a bit like patting your head while rubbing your tummy - you need to divorce what your feet are doing from what you're hands are doing. For me, the divorce has yet to be finalized.

On the upside, my physical therapy is going really well. My clamshells got upgraded to crab walks and my heel taps are elevated to the height of a full step. Also, my IT band has loosened substantially. When I started foam rolling them (see below), I was on the verge of tears with the weight of only one leg on the roller. Today was the first day I did full two-leg rolls with totally bearable pain. Success!

What's up IT band!

So things were looking up, until the last 5 minutes of practice and the skin on my left big toe split.

WTF??

This is definitely a mode of failure I hadn't anticipated. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt that much, and can be easily covered with a bandaid. Hopefully it won't impede the last week of practice.

T minus 7 days!

First Orchestra Rehearsal

Last night I had my first orchestra rehearsal. There was a lot of learning to be done - it was the first time seeing microphones and mixers set up, the first time performing with the mridangam and violin, and the first time going through everything with a braid, spetum clip, and other uncomfortable costume pieces.

For those who are outside the Bharatanatyam world, let me explain why these things suck. The braid is like two pounds of swinging junk attached to your head. I got a cramp in my back at one point for the extra weight pulling my head back.

The septum clip is a new one for me. It's not something you typically wear in a run-of-the-mill group performance. In part, that's because everyone hates them. A lot of people find them uncomfortable because they pinch the inside of your nose and make you want to sneeze. I didn't have that problem. The other problem (which I definitely had) is that it's a wick for sweat and nose-products that drips down right into your mouth. Ewwwww!

Why do people choose to wear these?

I also managed to bruise my shin with my bells. Normally, the problem with bells is that they give you blisters. To avoid this, I tied them really tight, and came across this alternate failure mode. I hope the swelling goes down before Tuesday when I do my stage rehearsal.

I couldn't drink enough water to replace what I was losing. My saree was completely soaked by the time I finished. I drank as much as I could once I finished, but I still woke up feeling like I had a hangover in the morning. And I have to do this (and worse) three more times. OMG!!!

What's next? For the long weekend, I'm sequestering myself in the south bay to focus on dance and avoid undue driving back and forth. Last night, I stayed with Kjirsten and family in Fremont. As much as I love the city, it was very peaceful falling asleep to the sound of crickets.

Now, I'm staying in my "Gsuite Mountain View Getaway" apartment. For those non-Googlers, Google offers up their corporate apartments for free on weekends to employees if they're available. Since who would stay in Mountain View by choice on a long weekend, there was space available! So here I am.

No SF, but could be worse

Today I didn't practice because I was completely exhausted. Tomorrow, however, no excuses. And, hey, what else am I going to do in Mountain View on a Saturday?

T minus 8 days.