Being miles away from India, it's surprising how much enthusiasm Desis have for Indian festivities. New Jersey is a happening place at this time of the year. Durga Puja extends over 2 weekends at various venues. It's a challenge for us to do so many performances in a short time span.I have danced to all permutations and combinations. Doing shows back to back over the weekend or shows the same day at 2 different venues. What was the challenge in store this puja season?
Last weekend we were fresh from our 2 month hiatus making an appearance in North Jersey pada of ICC. This weekend we were in Delaware, then back to Central Jersey for Dashami. We had Mitra barely catching any sleep as she was accompanying a batch of kids to the Dusherra festival in Edison and then joining us for our dance at Kallol, New Jersey's biggest puja. None of us could go through that routine, so we skipped the Dusherra celebrations. Some brave folks still managed to squeeze in dandiya nights after all this crazy schedule. I was left postponing dandiya plans for the innumerable time.
We had returned late in the night from Delaware, barely eaten the next morning before putting on make-up and driving to our final show day. It's a miracle that my kids made it to tennis or had any lunch. We were on auto-pilot mode functioning like zombies. I had drawn a chart color co-ordinated detailing all stage position since we had different set of dancers all the 3 days. The crowd support and our Edison samosas kept us functioning. There were high expectations from our team, since memories of our performances at Banga Sammelan and George Street Playhouse Aug 1st was etched in people's minds. We never dreamt this final day would be such a test of physical and mental endurance before our home crowd.
All the hard work we had put in during the summer was paying off now as all of us could dance no matter what. Sleep or food didn't matter. If there was a committment we would do it and we would win the crowd. That's the spirit of RDM professionals.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Girls night out in Delaware
Delaware was the surprise this season. We were excited to be going to a different neighborhood. The RDM team went in 2 cars, stopping at places to pick-up dancers en-route to Delaware. I-95 was notorious as ever; the traffic heading for a game in Philadelphia. Some of us had to do make-up & hair in the car.
It was a hilarious car ride. We knew that even though we had split up, all of us were practicing the same songs, since we could see heads and hands moving in unison in two different cars. Practically all of us drive nowdays with one hand on the steering, the other in a mudra. Facial expressions is practiced on all other drivers. Driving to a venue is always adventurous. It's the drive back later in the night which is awful. You feel so drained out that no amount of Dunkin Donuts works on the system, all you want to do is sleep.
The organizers had a killer dinner waiting for us. We were royally treated. Having always had a diet of samosas, Gatorade or energy bars this was a treat- something unexpected. We had to dance after eating the mithai and batura. Fo the Aug 1st show, we hadn't eaten anything the entire day. What a contrast? It's a bad idea to bring us food before our show but all that drive made us forget our usual discipline.
The dances went without a hitch. We had a different sequence here since Guru Mitra was dancing and some of our dancers were not there. All this had to be co-ordinated in less than a week. I did my solos and disappeared to help with the costume changes. Suddenly there was loud applause, I literally ran on to the stage to find my series of group dances starting. If I didn't enter at the right minute, the rest of the dancers would be stuck on stage.
It was a rare treat to watch our Guru dance. I never watch any dancer before I perform but I too couldn't let this moment go. I had to be there to understand the essence of the moment. Videos would never bring the same feelings in me. Her Bangla dances to Tagore's poetry were a big hit with the puja crowd. Standing in the wings we could learn first-hand how to emote & captivate the audience. Mitra's fast paced Odissi piece, Battu dedicated to Nataraja had us all spellbound by her complex footworks. We were charged up to do our pallavi. The pace and mood had been set by Mitra. We had to keep the momentum going.The audience equally appreciated the classical pieces and the Bangla songs. This was well worth the travel!
Show over, having wooed the Delaware folks we switched back to Mommy mode. I had made numerous calls before going on stage trying to fix my son's imaginary tummy ache but I knew it would disappear the second he reached his friends house. Still all of us were crazy worrying about dinner and bed time, none of us were in a mood to enjoy the puja festivities. Strangely, all we wanted to have was a regular Saturday night, reading to our kids and tucking them in bed. But we are dancers, this is our version of Girls night out.
It was a hilarious car ride. We knew that even though we had split up, all of us were practicing the same songs, since we could see heads and hands moving in unison in two different cars. Practically all of us drive nowdays with one hand on the steering, the other in a mudra. Facial expressions is practiced on all other drivers. Driving to a venue is always adventurous. It's the drive back later in the night which is awful. You feel so drained out that no amount of Dunkin Donuts works on the system, all you want to do is sleep.
The organizers had a killer dinner waiting for us. We were royally treated. Having always had a diet of samosas, Gatorade or energy bars this was a treat- something unexpected. We had to dance after eating the mithai and batura. Fo the Aug 1st show, we hadn't eaten anything the entire day. What a contrast? It's a bad idea to bring us food before our show but all that drive made us forget our usual discipline.
The dances went without a hitch. We had a different sequence here since Guru Mitra was dancing and some of our dancers were not there. All this had to be co-ordinated in less than a week. I did my solos and disappeared to help with the costume changes. Suddenly there was loud applause, I literally ran on to the stage to find my series of group dances starting. If I didn't enter at the right minute, the rest of the dancers would be stuck on stage.
It was a rare treat to watch our Guru dance. I never watch any dancer before I perform but I too couldn't let this moment go. I had to be there to understand the essence of the moment. Videos would never bring the same feelings in me. Her Bangla dances to Tagore's poetry were a big hit with the puja crowd. Standing in the wings we could learn first-hand how to emote & captivate the audience. Mitra's fast paced Odissi piece, Battu dedicated to Nataraja had us all spellbound by her complex footworks. We were charged up to do our pallavi. The pace and mood had been set by Mitra. We had to keep the momentum going.The audience equally appreciated the classical pieces and the Bangla songs. This was well worth the travel!
Show over, having wooed the Delaware folks we switched back to Mommy mode. I had made numerous calls before going on stage trying to fix my son's imaginary tummy ache but I knew it would disappear the second he reached his friends house. Still all of us were crazy worrying about dinner and bed time, none of us were in a mood to enjoy the puja festivities. Strangely, all we wanted to have was a regular Saturday night, reading to our kids and tucking them in bed. But we are dancers, this is our version of Girls night out.
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