Dancing the years away

I love to dance. Classical, folk, movie, latin, all kinds fascinate me. I am still a student when it comes to bharathanatyam. Of course, I would probably have been better learning it at 13 instead of 30 :-) But age has nothing to do with learning a skill/art. It is all in the mindset. But when it comes to performing, I prefer to be in the company of similars. Imagine dancing with kids half my age. Which is what I did this weekend. Should I be embarrassed about it? It has not bothered me really. But don't mistake it for a wanna-be symptom. It is just that, when my feet are moving and my heart is singing, I care very little about the rest. Quite a few people came up and asked me how it felt to dance with the teenagers and then added that I didn't look too bad with them ;-) I don't know whether to take that as a backhanded compliment.

I have always been interested in learning to dance, but never got around to it until recently. So it is fun to dance alongside my daughter :-) What really motivated me was this 50plus lady coming down to Chennai for her arangetram. Even Rukmani Devi Arundale didn't start until she was in her mid 20s.

Agreed, it is not easy. It took me sometime before I could sit in araimandi continuously for 5 minutes. It took me much much longer to perform my first classical piece, but I did do it. But in a way, it has helped me spiritually. I feel closer to my faith, when I do something on Ganesha or Krishna, than I ever did going to the temple.

My mind is faster at grasping the nuances of an item faster than my body does which is good and bad. By the time I master the piece, I know exactly what I am doing. But the time taken to reach that point is, let us say, proportional to my age.

And added to all this, I am planning to learn to tap :-) What fun!