After I gathered my field notes and read them, I found my main focal point. Th first focal point I will begin on is the diversity in the Bharatanatyam dance school. There are students who attend Indian dance school and are from a different cultural background. They don’t know what to experience or what to expect. They feel like the insider students look at them strangely. The students feel uncomfortable being at the dance school at first. However, an insider student has experienced the dance and also the culture when joining the dance school. The insider students already know about the language, culture and the dance. The insider student already knows what to expect out of dance class. The insider students has more confidence, whereas a outsider tends to isolate themselves from the class. Like, for example, a girl who just joins the dance class and she around the age of thirteen and older she just sits in the corner by herself and doesn’t interact with the other students. Other outsider students that are young like five years old, is very shy and wants there mother next to them while she is dancing. Or they start to cry and doesn’t want to learn or be next to the dance teacher.
When I first started Bharatanatyam I was very excited to learn a new type of Indian dance. However, I didn’t have a clue about the culture behind bharatanatyam. Even though I am Guyanese, I wanted to try a Indian classical dance. When I walked into the class, all eyes were on me. I felt uncomfortable, like these insider students knew I didn’t belong there or I was from a different culture. So, I just sat in the corner by myself until Sadhana called on me to learn. It was weird being the only student sitting down in the corner, when the other students are talking or practicing. Until, about five months went by I started to interact with other students and I also began helping other students who needed help with there dance.
However as time goes by, the outsider students would be more familiar with the culture and dance. They wouldn’t have to feel like an outsider anymore. The thing that I also like about this dance school is even though there are some students who are from different cultures, the dance instructor ( Sadhana Paranji) still taught them the different hand gestures, prayers, beats, questions and answers about Bharatanatyam dance. For example, she said “ What are the two most important treaties in the Indian classical dance tradition?”. Everyone was very curious to know the importance about the important dance treaties. Sadhana then said “The Natyasastra by Saga Bharata and Abinayadarphana by a man named Nandikeshwara.”
She also tests each student from the starting to where you are up to. I have learnt a lot of Bharatnatyam culture, the meaning of the different hand gestures the students use while dancing. I personally enjoy learning the dance prayer and the Lord Shiva prayer. However, when we have to perform, all the students say the prayer before performing.
