Diary notes from Kids Dance Diploma
[Found a few notes I had in 2022, putting them here in case I want to see them!]
I got a phone call on a lazy afternoon many many years back— it was Shukla Sharker from Sunbeams. She told me about Arisha's knack for dancing and to think of professional training for her. I was happy and overwhelmed, not knowing exactly where to start with.
When I don’t know what to do, I always reach out to Jamila and Seuty — my two most compassionate friends. I visited two different dance schools with them. When we (me, girls, arshad) visited Kolpotoru — Lubna Mariam embraced the girls with love. She also convinced Anuva to try out dancing, telling her she could leave it anytime.
So the journey started. Arisha was 4, Anuva 6.5 trying teium-tat-tat- teiyum-ta-ha … on their little toes. It was Shammi Miss, Anha Miss, Mouli Miss, Sweety Miss and Amit Sir who created a strong foundation. Often, when I asked about their dance classes, they would tell me, “Ammu, it's not dance, it's only exercise!”.
Then came Arthy Miss, freshly graduated from Bishwavarati who made strict rules that dancers have to dance in sharees. To me, it was a milestone when my girls learned to wear sharees on their own. And yes, by then, they started dancing different items.
As the dance classes continued, without knowing, classical music and dance became a dar part of us. Our weekends would revolve around kids dance school classes. It means no morning meetups on Fridays and no afternoon meetups on Saturdays for eight years!
We started to have a very different circle of parents of dancers. It was more than friendship — a bond of family since the moms would take care of the makeup, dreassup of my girls as I never owned any lipstick or makeup ever! I remember Naz apa (Sreya’s mom and a dancer herself) getting tear-free eye pencils thinking of Anuva’s sensitivity. I must use this chance to thank all the amazing moms.
Over all these years, there were TV shows, performances and numerous workshops, including one from Leela Samson. I remember one where Arthy Miss’s friend had a workshop on a beautiful tribal dance.
The girls were then getting ready for their first official stage performance through “Rongo Probesh”, trained and choreographed by awesome dancer Kirti Ramgopal. It was beyond the dance- it was beautiful storytelling. On the day of the long-anticipated stage show, the girls were ready for their performance with live music in orange costumes. Once they were ready, I was anxiously waiting outside to see the dancers on stage. And that is when I received a call that my chacha was stabbed by extremists. I was numb. I did not remember how I passed the show to visit my chahca in the hospital. He recovered by the grace of Almighty, it has been a great gift having him back home.
Yes, after all these years through many memories — the girls have completed their dance diploma. I am sure its a beginning of a new journey and I can’t wait to watch it with awe.
