The last post was a rant that was pending from a long time. What i actually wanted to write abt Nidhi's first dance performance is this...
Nidhi has been learning dance for a little more than a year, what with so many holidays and yearly vacations to India. So i thought she is a long way from going on stage for a performance. Last month for some reason or the other she missed three weeks of classes. Then suddenly i get a call from her dance teacher, y rn't u sending Nidhi, we r preparing for a show next week. i popped my eyes out and said really? The next half an hour was spent in me questioning the teacher how is it possible u r selecting Nidhi and how will she ever pick up a dance that other, more experienced children have been practising every day for the past two weeks. What abt co-ordination? And, what abt costume,
jewellery, etc.?
Next i had to call Santosh coz he's the one who will have to drop Nidhi everyday for the next 1 week for dance practice. On hearing abt the show, Santosh agreed readily. He also agreed to come shopping with us.
And, then the unfortunate happened. The teacher's husband had a leg-operation redindering him unable to walk. The teacher became so busy that she cancelled her daily dance practice asking hildren to come only during the twice-weekly regular classes. i was terrified. how will nidhi manage? the teacher said y don't u go to one of the girls' house and practice there. we called up and arranged with one of the moms that we will come for a day and record the dance so that nidhi can practise at home whenever possible. i started a countdown in my mind that only 6 days remained for the show.
The next day we went to the girl's house. First of all the mom started questioning us how is it possible that Nidhi will learn the dance in such a short time. and she has such short hair, how on earth r u going to plait her hair and fix a kunjalam on it, she asked me. This was the fear in my heart too and i started going downhill thinking how on earth r we going to manage everything. On top of that the mom started saying her daughter is too tired to practise after two weeks of dance practice. she kept saying yesterday we went to a get-together, today we have a get-together, tomorrow we have a get-together... my daughter is too tired. Parties and get-togethers are a way of life here and we were amused that the lady was trying to impress us with her social life. anyway, we recorded the girl's dance (with music not good enuf to practise on) and came back home.
Nidhi meanwhile had not much to say. she came home and practised the dance and it took two hrs to get everything in a flow and for her to do the dance in sequence once without missing a step. dancing beatutifully was long way off and co-ordination with other girls was a question mark coz we had no clue what the others were doing. whenever i would ask her to practise Nidhi would oblige happily. she had no tension of any sort coz i was worrying enuf for all of us combined - abt the dance, the costume, the hair-style.
I called up the teacher the next day morning and asked her yet again if she was sure she is selecting Nidhi for this particular performance? I must appreciate the teacher's confidence on Nidhi - she said just let her practise and i'll see her two days later in the regular class. We had one day of weekend left with us, so it was dance in the morning, afternoon, evening. Santosh smartly outsourced the lunch as i was with Nidhi all the time, correcting her, teaching her and fine-tuning her. Aditi was quite happy with all the activity and she would start smiling in recoginition everytime we re-played the song. she would watch her Nidhikka dance and Santosh or i would hold her back from getting under Nidhi's feet.
Nidhi went to school the next day. After lunch she told me shall we practise? i forbid it and made her sleep well thru the afternoon. Then spent the evening in dance practice. The next day we practised a little at home before leaving for dance-class in the evening. i went to meet her teacher after the class and the minute she saw me the teacher said 'nannaa panraale Nidhi...'. i heaved a sigh of relief and wondered how on earth did she do it! :-) we discussed the costume, make-up etc. and came home.
The next day Santosh was busy, but day after he took us shopping. we found nothing in the shops where we expected to find everything. santosh drove us to another place and after stepping in and out of many shops and after a bit of creativity and mix-and-match we came home armed with 'shouri'(artificial hair), kunjalam, odiyanam, few other jewellery and the most important safety
pins and hair-pins.
The next day afternoon, after Nidhi came home from school, we sat together and literally tied the 'shouri' to her hair. she practised her dance with this hair-style. although it stayed on, i was not happy coz it didn't look pretty enuf. in the evening again we sat with the hair and i was happier with the
result this time. we went for a complete dress-up and asked Mr.Appa's opinion when he came home from office.
One day before the programme, Nidhi went for her regular dance class. i went after class to show the teacher the pattu-paavadai that was to be worn. luckily i had some over-the-top ultra-glitzy jewellery(gifted by my parents) that i have never worn once in my life. also, for sent' reasons, i had kept the glittering maati & thongal (earrings) worn for my marriage. i was happy to put all these to use now and Nidhi was glittering like a.. like a... i-dunno.. some glittering thing!
Finally, the big day arrived and what with Aditi's routine to be attended to, we planned the day in detail. the teacher had asked us to organise another hour of practice with nidhi's dance-partner. i called up the other girls too and that morning we had a couple of hrs of dance practice in our house(plus a whole lot of giggling, joking, computer-games, playing with Aditi, trying to make her laugh....) - we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Santosh, as usual, organised the food from outside and Nidhi(and Aditi) had a blast with all her friends.
i started Nidhi's getting ready a good 2 hrs before we were to leave and found that every minute of those two hrs was needed. Meanwhile santosh got himself and aditi ready and 'packed'(this involves a lot of things coz remember Aditi is just 7 months old - the younger they r the more the things they need!). At last Nidhi was ready and i found we had just 5 mins left to leave. In what can be termed a world record, i got ready in 4 mins and spent 1 min in photographing Nidhi. we reached the venue on time - 30 mins before the show starts. once we reached there, Nidhi proudly led the way bcoz the hall was in her school only. the canteen-wallah uncle gave Nidhi a thumbs-up! we soon found her teacher who was very appreciative of her hair-style first and foremost. we were among the first to arrive. two other groups under Nidhi's dance teacher were taking part and the rest were all from different teachers/choreographers/enthu-moms - 40 groups in all. it was a dance festival was being organised by an Indian club. we spent some time talking to the other parents and the show started just 15 mins past 6. Nidhi's group was 15th in the sequence. so we spent our time watching the other dance performances.
when 'the mom'(the girl whose house we learned the dance first time, incidently a very sweet girl) arrived, i was happy to literally c her jaw drop open in surprise at Nidhi's hair-style. oye, wait till u see my daughter dance i thought(ok, i know i shdn't be mean but that lady was really discouraging and if we listened to her we would've dropped out). other moms also started asking me how i fixed her hair and i started worrying a bit thinking i hope the hair stays on till the end of her performance. i called nidhi aside and told her whatever happens, even if ur hair falls off, just continue and complete the dance. don't miss ur steps.
Started with...
..ended up with!
When the programme started Nidhi was in the row before us watching the other dance shows. she kept turning back at intervals with an extremely worried look on her face. i started telling her it's ok, u'll do perfectly well, don't worry, don't get tensed. after a while she shook her head and asked 'Aditi is ok? i am worried!' Turns out Nidhi was scared for her sister bcoz of the loud music! (A few weeks back we went to a music concert and had to take turns keeping Aditi outside due to the loud noise). Thankfully, Aditi had gone to sleep in my lap and woke up just before her Nidhikka's dance started.
Once it was the turn of Nidhi's group the teacher took them backstage and sent them off. she came back and stood in the front row and watched her students with great pride. santosh walked up to the middle row and took up position in such a way he could get the best shot in his camera. Aditi and i just sat watching the show. although i was shooting as a backup with santosh's mobile, i was more focused on watching the show live and feasting my eyes on my daughter dancing on stage for the first time in classical style.
it was a fusion dance on one of A.R.Rehman's compositions, with the girls on the left dancing in western style and the girls on the right in a mixture of bharatnatyam and folk style. Nidhi was on the right, literally glittering! we had told her to forget smiling and concentrate on the steps coz during practice she would mis-step whenever she smiled. when her dance partner joined her in practice it became worse - both the girls would end up giggling. so i had told her to forget smiling and focus on the dance. Now, we were all pleasantly surprised when Nidhi danced with such a beautiful smile on a face and that too correctly. I asked her later and she told me she was not at all nervous rather she was so pleased to go on stage. wow, i like this attitude!
Since it was a dance festival and not competition, each and every participant got a certificate and a bag of goodies after their performance. there were so many assorted goodies in that bag that santosh and i even got a toothbrush each for ourselves from it! since aditi was getting restless, after a couple of dances after nidhi's, we went out and found the teacher with all her students and parents gathered arnd her. all the children had performed really well. when the teacher saw us she called us to the front and started telling everyone arnd her how nidhi learned this dance in no time and performed it so well on stage. i thanked her a lot and only then really understood how much confidence the teacher had in Nidhi for selecting her in such short notice.
we came out and Santosh took us girls(Nidhi, aditi and me) for an ice-cream treat. And, came home and slept like logs... to be woken up by Aditi as usual early in the morning next day!
Nidhi has been learning dance for a little more than a year, what with so many holidays and yearly vacations to India. So i thought she is a long way from going on stage for a performance. Last month for some reason or the other she missed three weeks of classes. Then suddenly i get a call from her dance teacher, y rn't u sending Nidhi, we r preparing for a show next week. i popped my eyes out and said really? The next half an hour was spent in me questioning the teacher how is it possible u r selecting Nidhi and how will she ever pick up a dance that other, more experienced children have been practising every day for the past two weeks. What abt co-ordination? And, what abt costume,
jewellery, etc.?
Next i had to call Santosh coz he's the one who will have to drop Nidhi everyday for the next 1 week for dance practice. On hearing abt the show, Santosh agreed readily. He also agreed to come shopping with us.
And, then the unfortunate happened. The teacher's husband had a leg-operation redindering him unable to walk. The teacher became so busy that she cancelled her daily dance practice asking hildren to come only during the twice-weekly regular classes. i was terrified. how will nidhi manage? the teacher said y don't u go to one of the girls' house and practice there. we called up and arranged with one of the moms that we will come for a day and record the dance so that nidhi can practise at home whenever possible. i started a countdown in my mind that only 6 days remained for the show.
The next day we went to the girl's house. First of all the mom started questioning us how is it possible that Nidhi will learn the dance in such a short time. and she has such short hair, how on earth r u going to plait her hair and fix a kunjalam on it, she asked me. This was the fear in my heart too and i started going downhill thinking how on earth r we going to manage everything. On top of that the mom started saying her daughter is too tired to practise after two weeks of dance practice. she kept saying yesterday we went to a get-together, today we have a get-together, tomorrow we have a get-together... my daughter is too tired. Parties and get-togethers are a way of life here and we were amused that the lady was trying to impress us with her social life. anyway, we recorded the girl's dance (with music not good enuf to practise on) and came back home.
Nidhi meanwhile had not much to say. she came home and practised the dance and it took two hrs to get everything in a flow and for her to do the dance in sequence once without missing a step. dancing beatutifully was long way off and co-ordination with other girls was a question mark coz we had no clue what the others were doing. whenever i would ask her to practise Nidhi would oblige happily. she had no tension of any sort coz i was worrying enuf for all of us combined - abt the dance, the costume, the hair-style.
I called up the teacher the next day morning and asked her yet again if she was sure she is selecting Nidhi for this particular performance? I must appreciate the teacher's confidence on Nidhi - she said just let her practise and i'll see her two days later in the regular class. We had one day of weekend left with us, so it was dance in the morning, afternoon, evening. Santosh smartly outsourced the lunch as i was with Nidhi all the time, correcting her, teaching her and fine-tuning her. Aditi was quite happy with all the activity and she would start smiling in recoginition everytime we re-played the song. she would watch her Nidhikka dance and Santosh or i would hold her back from getting under Nidhi's feet.
Nidhi went to school the next day. After lunch she told me shall we practise? i forbid it and made her sleep well thru the afternoon. Then spent the evening in dance practice. The next day we practised a little at home before leaving for dance-class in the evening. i went to meet her teacher after the class and the minute she saw me the teacher said 'nannaa panraale Nidhi...'. i heaved a sigh of relief and wondered how on earth did she do it! :-) we discussed the costume, make-up etc. and came home.
The next day Santosh was busy, but day after he took us shopping. we found nothing in the shops where we expected to find everything. santosh drove us to another place and after stepping in and out of many shops and after a bit of creativity and mix-and-match we came home armed with 'shouri'(artificial hair), kunjalam, odiyanam, few other jewellery and the most important safety
pins and hair-pins.
The next day afternoon, after Nidhi came home from school, we sat together and literally tied the 'shouri' to her hair. she practised her dance with this hair-style. although it stayed on, i was not happy coz it didn't look pretty enuf. in the evening again we sat with the hair and i was happier with the
result this time. we went for a complete dress-up and asked Mr.Appa's opinion when he came home from office.
One day before the programme, Nidhi went for her regular dance class. i went after class to show the teacher the pattu-paavadai that was to be worn. luckily i had some over-the-top ultra-glitzy jewellery(gifted by my parents) that i have never worn once in my life. also, for sent' reasons, i had kept the glittering maati & thongal (earrings) worn for my marriage. i was happy to put all these to use now and Nidhi was glittering like a.. like a... i-dunno.. some glittering thing!
Finally, the big day arrived and what with Aditi's routine to be attended to, we planned the day in detail. the teacher had asked us to organise another hour of practice with nidhi's dance-partner. i called up the other girls too and that morning we had a couple of hrs of dance practice in our house(plus a whole lot of giggling, joking, computer-games, playing with Aditi, trying to make her laugh....) - we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Santosh, as usual, organised the food from outside and Nidhi(and Aditi) had a blast with all her friends.
i started Nidhi's getting ready a good 2 hrs before we were to leave and found that every minute of those two hrs was needed. Meanwhile santosh got himself and aditi ready and 'packed'(this involves a lot of things coz remember Aditi is just 7 months old - the younger they r the more the things they need!). At last Nidhi was ready and i found we had just 5 mins left to leave. In what can be termed a world record, i got ready in 4 mins and spent 1 min in photographing Nidhi. we reached the venue on time - 30 mins before the show starts. once we reached there, Nidhi proudly led the way bcoz the hall was in her school only. the canteen-wallah uncle gave Nidhi a thumbs-up! we soon found her teacher who was very appreciative of her hair-style first and foremost. we were among the first to arrive. two other groups under Nidhi's dance teacher were taking part and the rest were all from different teachers/choreographers/enthu-moms - 40 groups in all. it was a dance festival was being organised by an Indian club. we spent some time talking to the other parents and the show started just 15 mins past 6. Nidhi's group was 15th in the sequence. so we spent our time watching the other dance performances.
when 'the mom'(the girl whose house we learned the dance first time, incidently a very sweet girl) arrived, i was happy to literally c her jaw drop open in surprise at Nidhi's hair-style. oye, wait till u see my daughter dance i thought(ok, i know i shdn't be mean but that lady was really discouraging and if we listened to her we would've dropped out). other moms also started asking me how i fixed her hair and i started worrying a bit thinking i hope the hair stays on till the end of her performance. i called nidhi aside and told her whatever happens, even if ur hair falls off, just continue and complete the dance. don't miss ur steps.
Started with...
..ended up with!
When the programme started Nidhi was in the row before us watching the other dance shows. she kept turning back at intervals with an extremely worried look on her face. i started telling her it's ok, u'll do perfectly well, don't worry, don't get tensed. after a while she shook her head and asked 'Aditi is ok? i am worried!' Turns out Nidhi was scared for her sister bcoz of the loud music! (A few weeks back we went to a music concert and had to take turns keeping Aditi outside due to the loud noise). Thankfully, Aditi had gone to sleep in my lap and woke up just before her Nidhikka's dance started.
Once it was the turn of Nidhi's group the teacher took them backstage and sent them off. she came back and stood in the front row and watched her students with great pride. santosh walked up to the middle row and took up position in such a way he could get the best shot in his camera. Aditi and i just sat watching the show. although i was shooting as a backup with santosh's mobile, i was more focused on watching the show live and feasting my eyes on my daughter dancing on stage for the first time in classical style.
it was a fusion dance on one of A.R.Rehman's compositions, with the girls on the left dancing in western style and the girls on the right in a mixture of bharatnatyam and folk style. Nidhi was on the right, literally glittering! we had told her to forget smiling and concentrate on the steps coz during practice she would mis-step whenever she smiled. when her dance partner joined her in practice it became worse - both the girls would end up giggling. so i had told her to forget smiling and focus on the dance. Now, we were all pleasantly surprised when Nidhi danced with such a beautiful smile on a face and that too correctly. I asked her later and she told me she was not at all nervous rather she was so pleased to go on stage. wow, i like this attitude!
Since it was a dance festival and not competition, each and every participant got a certificate and a bag of goodies after their performance. there were so many assorted goodies in that bag that santosh and i even got a toothbrush each for ourselves from it! since aditi was getting restless, after a couple of dances after nidhi's, we went out and found the teacher with all her students and parents gathered arnd her. all the children had performed really well. when the teacher saw us she called us to the front and started telling everyone arnd her how nidhi learned this dance in no time and performed it so well on stage. i thanked her a lot and only then really understood how much confidence the teacher had in Nidhi for selecting her in such short notice.
we came out and Santosh took us girls(Nidhi, aditi and me) for an ice-cream treat. And, came home and slept like logs... to be woken up by Aditi as usual early in the morning next day!
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