So some of you might be wondering why I’ve made a trip to Baltimore and then immediately follow it with a one-day trip to Boston – it seems like a lot of travel for not a lot of time spent. The actual reasoning is that I had planned to go to Boston all along for my godsisters’ arangetram. The timing was just in question because I wasn’t sure if I would have started work yet and so my plane tickets were a bit last minute. My dad threw in the trip to Baltimore so I could pay my sister a visit since I’ve never seen her at JHU before.
An arangetram is a debut for classical Bharatanatyam dancers as a way of presenting them to the community. The dancers are allowed to ascend the stage and dance for the public. My godsisters have been studying Bharatanatyam dance since they were 5 and 7 years old and 12+ years later, it was their time to make a debut.
The entire program is about two and a half hours long and is composed of several dances. Some are purely dance, some tell stories, and all are beautiful to watch. Coming from a dance background myself, I could really appreciate the intricacies of their movement – from the darting of their eyes to the precise nature of their finger and hand movements, it’s easy to see why it takes such a long time to master and perfect this art.
Their guru, or dance teacher, did a wonderful job explaining each of the stories before they danced and I think this really helped to engage the audience and allow them to anticipate what they were watching. All the dances were set to live music and orchestra.
The culture and tradition that this event is steeped in really prevails in all aspects. The traditional garb, the ghungroo bells, the intensifying eye make-up: all hours and hours of work in the making.
I’ve seen one arangetram before this one but I was really touched emotionally by this performance: maybe it was because I personally have known the two dancers from a young age, maybe it was because I was sharing the experience with my family; whatever the reason, it was an afternoon filled with color and beauty and a love for dance.
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