Today I completed my Bharatanatyam 'pilgrimage' in Tamil Nadu. This 'pilgrimage' played a big part in my coming to Tamil Nadu.
I learned Bharatanatyam when I was in California. Heck I even did a lousy performance because I have a very bad grasp on beats and rhythm, and bharatanatyam is a lot about keeping to the beat even as the background music goes off-beat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it tremendously and perhaps one day I will realise my dream of actually becoming a bharatanatyam dancer (of some sort hahaha).
So what is my bharatanatyam 'pilgrimage'? It's a customized tour package :), since there was no such thing to begin with. I traced my memories and knowledge of bharatanatyam to come up with a list of places to visit/things to do to pay homage to my love for bharatanatyam. They are
1. Visit the Kalakshetra Academy in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai; see them practice
2. Visit the Nataraja bronze statue in the Govt Museum, Chennai
3. Visit the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram
My good fortune continues as in the 2nd week I got to Chennai, Kalakshetra Academy held a one week-long dance performance in memory of their founder, Rukmini Devi, the legendary bharatanatyam dancer. I went for two of the performances and they were awesome. Not sure if I wrote about them earlier on. One of those evenings I almost couldn't get home because it got so late there were no buses anymore!
I wrote about my visiting the Nataraja bronze statue in an earlier post.
And now I am in Chidambaram, staying in a cheap (Rs 200/night) hotel room that has a small TV with 50+ channels, and I have visited the Nataraja Temple! My hotel is just outside the south gopuram of the temple, so I just left my shoes in the room and walked straight into the temple.
The temple is huge with large open spaces between shrines. I will most likely write more later once I get back home (Msia) and can upload pictures. Suffice to say that the shrines were all stone and beautifully sculptured. Every pillar tells a story it seems! Look up to the ceiling and it's either painted mural or ancient writing in Pali. Look down and ...phew~ mostly bare stone. Hahaha. I found the central shrine for Nataraja and the western shrine for Parvati (it was written Sri Sivagami Amman Temple, I believe it's for Parvati, Lord Shiva's consort) most amazing. Oh yes, there was the large water tank, the Sivanaga Tank (could have the name wrong here from memory) around which I sat for an hour just enjoying the shade and the sights of devotees washing and praying in the water, of kids playing in the water, and of foreign French-speaking (truly most of them I have seen were speaking French) tourists snapping pictures.
It's 2.35pm now and it's freaking hot. The bare stones are like sizzling iron plates and I can't walk on them so I won't visit the temple until later this evening when they do the evening pooja (prayer). So now I know what pooja means...so many Bollywood movie female leads are called Pooja hahaha.
Time to get that cold, sugar-loaded fruit juice and return to my HBO in my room~ heck I watched The Rock and Final Destination last night...so lame haha.
I learned Bharatanatyam when I was in California. Heck I even did a lousy performance because I have a very bad grasp on beats and rhythm, and bharatanatyam is a lot about keeping to the beat even as the background music goes off-beat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it tremendously and perhaps one day I will realise my dream of actually becoming a bharatanatyam dancer (of some sort hahaha).
So what is my bharatanatyam 'pilgrimage'? It's a customized tour package :), since there was no such thing to begin with. I traced my memories and knowledge of bharatanatyam to come up with a list of places to visit/things to do to pay homage to my love for bharatanatyam. They are
1. Visit the Kalakshetra Academy in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai; see them practice
2. Visit the Nataraja bronze statue in the Govt Museum, Chennai
3. Visit the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram
My good fortune continues as in the 2nd week I got to Chennai, Kalakshetra Academy held a one week-long dance performance in memory of their founder, Rukmini Devi, the legendary bharatanatyam dancer. I went for two of the performances and they were awesome. Not sure if I wrote about them earlier on. One of those evenings I almost couldn't get home because it got so late there were no buses anymore!
I wrote about my visiting the Nataraja bronze statue in an earlier post.
And now I am in Chidambaram, staying in a cheap (Rs 200/night) hotel room that has a small TV with 50+ channels, and I have visited the Nataraja Temple! My hotel is just outside the south gopuram of the temple, so I just left my shoes in the room and walked straight into the temple.
The temple is huge with large open spaces between shrines. I will most likely write more later once I get back home (Msia) and can upload pictures. Suffice to say that the shrines were all stone and beautifully sculptured. Every pillar tells a story it seems! Look up to the ceiling and it's either painted mural or ancient writing in Pali. Look down and ...phew~ mostly bare stone. Hahaha. I found the central shrine for Nataraja and the western shrine for Parvati (it was written Sri Sivagami Amman Temple, I believe it's for Parvati, Lord Shiva's consort) most amazing. Oh yes, there was the large water tank, the Sivanaga Tank (could have the name wrong here from memory) around which I sat for an hour just enjoying the shade and the sights of devotees washing and praying in the water, of kids playing in the water, and of foreign French-speaking (truly most of them I have seen were speaking French) tourists snapping pictures.
It's 2.35pm now and it's freaking hot. The bare stones are like sizzling iron plates and I can't walk on them so I won't visit the temple until later this evening when they do the evening pooja (prayer). So now I know what pooja means...so many Bollywood movie female leads are called Pooja hahaha.
Time to get that cold, sugar-loaded fruit juice and return to my HBO in my room~ heck I watched The Rock and Final Destination last night...so lame haha.
I remember your first performance in Freeborn Hall. I wouldn't be able to tell if you were off beat. But then, you looked like you were having lots of fun on the stage. I thought your performance was good!
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