Practice Until Perfection

Sunday is our performance. This is about the time I start getting somewhat frustrated if things don’t look right. My patience wanes if anyone on the team makes a mistake because, well, it’s crunch time.

A friend asked me yesterday how practice was going and I told him that we were doing a good job, but still not good enough. It’s not that I’m a perfectionist or that I ask for too much from the team — I know they can do it. In fact, executive coach Scott Eblin suggests on his blog, “The Next Level,” that it is not talent but hard work and practice that lead to flawless performance. So I know it’s within our reach if we practice harder.

Moreover, I suppose I expect more because we really can’t afford to be anything but on-point. That is the trade-off you make when you use modern music.

You already put your credibility on the line when you use fused music. All stakes lie in the dance then.

I was explaining to him that we were using very traditional steps and costumes to counter the modern music. Imagine doing hip-hop in tights and ballet shoes. Exactly. But for us to pull off this stunt with the audience impressed or at least satisfied, our steps have to hit all the right beats, our form has be perfect and our movements as a team must be completely synchronized (as of now, that’s not the case).  Otherwise, it looks like an amorphous jumble and people will think we lack the skill necessary to perform proper Bharatanatyam.

I remember a journalism professor taught me that you have to know and use grammar rules properly first before you can break them. You must demonstrate your knowledge of proper form before you can play around with it. Similarly, the audience must leave with the feeling that the team has such skill that it was able to perform to unconventional music, not that the performance was a shoddy mumbo-jumbo. They must understand the challenge of choreographing “outside of the box” rather than thinking we had to resort to fusion because we didn’t understand the traditional style.

That is the reason I’m demanding perfection. Our credibility relies on it. If we wish to be taken seriously as a classical dance team then we must show we can dance classically to any tune.

You’ll see what I mean when you watch this practice video I’m posting from last week for your constructive comments. Keep in mind it is only practice footage taken outside the University of Florida stadium. Also, I’m the one taking the video so I’m missing from the dance, as well as one other girl. Enjoy.

Con-fusion: Compromising Integrity for the Sake of Appeal

As my friend finished making the final cut of music for our team’s Oct. 26 show (only two weeks away!), I couldn’t get myself to e-mail that version to the show directors just yet. While we wanted the music to be upbeat and modern, we also wanted it to contain some elements of classical music, even if those elements were derived from movie songs.

The team is called “Gator Natyam,” and began as way to show people Bharatanatyam doesn’t have to be the antiquated art some desis find it to be. But the initial cut just sounded too much like a pop song and did not jibe with me (note longer modern ending, as opposed to the final cut featured below).

We kept searching for music in Bollywood films and popular soundtracks. In trying to come up with a dance palatable to the taste of desis, we were compromising the integrity of the dance itself and overlooking other classical possibilities.

It’s an issue I face regularly, and it surfaces in many forms — music, costume, choreography, content — but at what point does our team’s decisions overstep the boundaries of contemporary fusion into inappropriate and offensive? As a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and daughter of a teacher, I feel I still have standards to uphold and a responsibility to the art, so the moment the music made me queasy was when I felt we were pushing it too far as a team.

The issue of modern Bharatanatyam is one dancers have been trying to tackle for some time. On her blog, Bharatanatyam enthusiast Sangeetha Shyam has comprised a list of Do’s and Don’ts for Bharatanatyam dancers based on the comments of others. One critic suggests if it’s not completely religious, then it can’t be considered classical.

“Actually, what is ‘anything classical?’ … Really classical is the art that is 100% faithful to the ancient scriptures. Everything else is Bollywood. Indian classical arts are rooted in the Hindu spirituality. If the Hindu spirituality declines, the interest in the classical arts declines automatically too.”

But another critic, Raga, disagrees:

“Everything can be done in Bharata Natyam. So I guess this classical fusion might be in a stage of development and improved choreography could give a more comforting result. “

Personally, I think a lot of content can be expressed through Bharatanatyam, but it’s a fine line one treads when dealing with fusion choreography and music selection.

The show directors were kind enough to extend the music submission deadline so we could stay up Wednesday night making a new cut. I’m pleased to say that I was completely content when I finally pressed “Send.”

Stepping Out of the Box: Looking to Step Shows for Choreographical Inspiration

Flickr Photo by Anand Krishnamoorthi

As my co-choreographer and I wrack our brains to come up with new routines for the fall season for our team, we find ourselves facing somewhat of a choreographer’s block. Because she and I have learned in the same school and from the same teacher for 14 years now, it’s often hard as co-choreographers to come up with fresh ideas.

However, on Wednesday, the day after the annual University of Florida South Asian American Student Alliance assembly, a lunch rendezvous with a friend led me to search in new places for ideas. He had attended the assembly and had seen all of the performances presented by the various Asian student groups on campus. Aware of the roadblock my co-choreographer and I were facing, he casually mentioned how he thought some of the step routines performed by the Asian fraternities reminded him of Bharatanatyam. I nearly choked on my lunch at this statement, laughing. How could clapping, stomping, and yelling of random words and syllables look anything like the intricate foot movements, graceful hand gestures and unprecedented abhinaya (expression) which comprise the Bharatanatyam repertoire?

Yet, after a few moments of considering his statement, I clearly drew the parallel he was making.

I see how the shouting of syllables and words in a step show can be compared to the thalavadhyam uttered by the teacher during the jati (rhythmic body movements and hand gestures) portion of a Bharatanatyam dance. The syllables and words in both cases serve as instruction and accompaniment to the footwork and hand movements produced by the dancer.

Note the syllables uttered by the vocalist and the gestures of the dancer in this Bharatanatyam video (starting at :37) in comparison the to the words projected by the leader of this UF step group to determine the steppers’ movements (starting at 1:15).

While I know my friend’s suggestion to view step show videos on Youtube.com as inspiration for our own choreography was well-intended, I doubt I will be stealing any step routines just yet. I will, however, view step routines with different respect than I did before, and possibly search for inspiration in genres I had never thought of previously.