Thursday, April 07, 2011

Keeping it real...

I feel so blessed each time I see my daughters. I feel honored that God chose me to nurture these individuals in early stages of their life and I already know these two are going to be two very remarkable personalities. And so when my girls look up to me and shower their adorations on me, I cannot but gush at my fortune. My girls pretending to go for a run, or pretend to do yoga in the living room, or just pretend to fast with me, it is just too sweet and too special a treat.

And although I enjoy it much I don't want them to have any false givings about my capabilities. I tell them when I need help and I sometimes share with them my fears. My older one is a realist and so she needs to see how irrelevant perfection is at times. Long story short, I was telling my girls about how I need a lot of practice for my upcoming recitals because I am not doing a good job. My daughters of course came back with a, 'No, Mamma you are the best' and 'You dance so well'. So I told them, that I need a lot of practice and then I can do justice to all that my teacher is entrusting me with.

My realist girl quickly asked me, 'so you think your heart is not in it?'

I had to maneuver carefully and I explained, I have lots on my plate and there are many others things in my life that need to be done, and they are my priority and so even though my heart is into dancing I can't devote as much time to it as I want. But that doesn't mean that I'll give up, I'll keep trying and eventually I'll get there but for now I'll just enjoy dancing even if its not perfect.

I saw a light bulb flicker in my girl's eyes, and she said, 'I think you are right Mamma, we should keep trying and no matter what you think I like how you dance'. This was a big concept for my 6 year old to grasp, she wants to be perfect at everything she does, even if its the first time she does it.

And now that we are on the topic of my upcoming dance recital, I need to mention that I am recruited for three sequence. Usually I don't sign up for anything more than one but this time, I just didn't say no. Not yet.

One of the dance is a pure technique dance that I have learned throughout the year, the other one is a special story telling dance that Pt. Birju Maharaj ji specially composed for our dance school and also one of the very first ones that I started to learn seven years ago but never finished. So I am gonna finish it this time.
The third and the opening number is the one that I am honored to be performing. It is a fusion number of India's national song 'Vande Matram' and Guru Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Where the mind is without Fear'. This year is the 150th birth anniversary of Indian Nobel Laureate and our school will pay respect through this performance. Now you know, why I am so nervous about not doing justice to the whole sequence. 
This was also my first time experiencing my teachers' choreography process and I feel very close to her just to be able to watch her go through iterations and create the perfect magic. 


Here's the link to the opening fusion number: 





And a picture of me from last years' recital:

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