Today I went early to help with all of the costume fittings for the Nutcracker then I tried on costumes and more costumes, had rehearsal, figured out placement things, tried on more costumes. It wasn't tiring, it was boring but necessary. By the end of the day I was pretty grumpy, I don't really like trying on costumes because I always get nervous that they won't fit well. The good news is that my snow costume from last year is now on the tightest hook setting which means that I have lost weight. =)
Yesterday night I went to go see a Barata Natyam Arangetram. My sister's team-mate from soccer also does a lot of Indian dancing and this was her graduation performance. I was really excited to be invited to it and excited to see something very different from what I am used to. I really enjoyed it, I know nothing about Barata Natyam but found it very interesting. Some of the movements were quite similar to things I have done in character dancing/ flamenco. The performance was all barefoot and I was amazed at how loud she could slap the floor with her feet when she wanted to. At first I thought there was something under her feet! It was also very musical, she had bells around her ankles so all of the movements had to be in time with the music. I was impressed by how when she moved her head from side to side she was so in time with the music that almost looked like her earrings had bells in them and that they were making the ringing sound.
It was a really lovely performance and her family was so proud of her. It was amazing to see the 500 seat theatre almost full. There were so many people and so much work had gone into the performance. She is really lucky her family was so generous, they had a big dinner with food after the performance for everyone, and just before intermission her a lot of her cousins went on stage to say something about her. It was really, really, really heart-warming.
Indian dance I think is something that is done a lot for oneself. At least I really got the feeling that my sister's team-mate enjoyed what she was doing both on the outside and on the inside. Ballet is very aesthetic every movement is about the position, the placement and the look. Whereas this style of dance was really about the quality of movement, the movements them self, the story and the music. I think that keeping that in mind for when I dance will help me become a better performer as I found it fascinating to watch, and would like to engage an audience as well as she did last night.
Alright I have a lot to do before I go to sleep tonight <3
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