What is dance? What is its importance? Dancing is a method to express thoughts and emotions gracefully and artistically which is about 9000 years old. Dance has evolved over these past years and I am sure it will continue to change for the better in the upcoming years. Dancing styles and techniques vary with time, place, and subtext. Contemporary dance in India is broadly discerned into classical and western dances. There are many diverse communities and social groups with trademark dancing styles. With all that being said, I think dancing is pretty dope.
I've danced for about 7-8 years. In India, there's a dream in the hearts of all parents- To see their child on the TV. There is a show on the TV called Dance India Dance and my parents definitely wanted me on it. And it is also clear to all the dancing academies what their potential clients want so obviously that's exactly what they advertise. Every single academy claims- we will make your kid a star, he/she will appear on TV, etc. So with such expectations, my parents enrolled me in a dance class. I was fairly good at dancing and hip-hop was my forte. I'll tell you my stories about dancing.
WHY I LEFT THE FIRST DANCE ACADEMY
The first dance academy I attended was a 10-minute scooter ride away from my house. I started taking lessons there when I was 5 years old and everyone else attending was also in the same age range. The room was a little cramped but wasn't bothersome as mostly small kids took lessons there. But there was a wall cupboard about 7 feet high with some vacant space between it and the ceiling. This space was used as storage. Now, if you were running an academy which is mostly attended by young fragile kids, what would you store in such a high place which is almost right above the aforementioned kids? I don't know, how about....Bricks?!?!
There were stacks of bricks kept in such a dangerous place and you must've foreseen this, one fateful day some of the bricks rained down on the heads of 3 kids. I left the academy the very next day. I like to think the other survivors did too.
MY TIME AT THE SECOND DANCE ACADEMY
I joined the second academy when I was 6 years old. It was just a little further in distance from the first one. I honed my skills exponentially here under the mentorship of Arzoo sir. I admired Arzoo sir a lot, he was a great dancer himself, and also very nice to talk to. I trained under him for about 2 years. We also created a video together, with me and him dancing, though I'm not sure if it is on YouTube.
There was also an exhibitive function held at a place called Shah Auditorium later where everyone from the academy including teachers performed on different themes which included feminism, save the environment, etc. There was also a grand finale performance at the end where everyone participated; I got a fever before the finale because of the heat and exhaustion of the day so they gave me an option to sit out but I was too damn hyped to give up now. I participated as well, and it was amazing.
Because of some other things I later grew less frequent in going to classes. Arzoo sir quit as well after some time so it wasn't the same anymore. In the upcoming years, I tried to rejoin again a few times but it just wasn't the same anymore.
3RD GRADE DANCE SKIT
I transferred to a new school and I had only one aim- I have to make a name for myself. In the mid of the session, there was an audition for a dance skit in some annual function so just for fun, I participated and.... I got a role.
Now let me tell you something, as far as my experience takes me, I can tell you that there is an enormous double standard about dance in schools based on gender. Not a single dance teacher is a man. The boy-girl ratio is like 1 to 20. Every single female dancer practices classical dance and hence, there is no way of learning or practicing western dance styles in school, and neither was it valued. In 6th grade, I opted for dance as SUPW (period for extracurricular activities) and there was no other boy so the authorities themselves asked me to change my SUPW.
So with all that being said, there were only 3 boys and about 15 girls( including the protagonist)on the team. I played a vapid side role of a nobody who just gave an appearance for about 10 seconds. If I had to explain to you how insignificant the role was I'd say the only way to make me more scarce is to wipe my existence off the planet. The 2nd boy was from the same class as me and had a similar role. The 3rd kid is my current best friend, he played the role of an aesthetic baby which was the equivalent of a flower vase. His whole role was to sit in the lap of 2 beautiful teachers (lucky) who played the role of the adult version of the protagonist and her friend. My very first impression of him was that he must be the son of a teacher who was picked up from the playschool nearby.
The function went fine, it went exactly as planned and frankly monotonous for me. Also, I had to wear lipstick for some reason.
4TH GRADE DANCE COMPETITION
My plans to become popular were postponed to the 4th grade. There was a dance competition held for the complete junior wing and I saw my chance. There were audition, quarter, semi, and final rounds. The dance teacher at that time was a nice person, she excelled at classical style but her suggestions were helpful nonetheless. She was also very encouraging and appreciative and I liked that about her. The time limit was 3 minutes. I came home and spoke to my mom about it and as I told you that she wanted me to get popular, she was so supportive that it was borderline imperative. So I picked 2 songs to perform at the 4 rounds, i.e., 1 each for 2 rounds. I picked a light song and a dark song- Kyon from Barfi and Zaroorat from Ek Villain respectively.
I was pretty good at choreographing (I learnt it from Arzoo sir) so I created the steps myself. I uploaded the songs on the TV and I would practice every evening with my mom watching me. She didn't know a thing about dance but a second opinion and perspective of a potential audience are very valuable. I went to the audition and I performed on the dark song. I got selected. I was over the moon. But I didn't let it go to my head. I choreographed the happy song and practiced and practiced. This time I took some advice from Arzoo sir as well. I cleared the quarters too.
By this time, there were 6 competitors in the semi-finals- 3 boys (including me) and 3 girls. Now here's the catch, 2 of the girls were staff-childs (wards of teachers) and all 3 of them performed classical styles so their spots were booked. Now, some of you might disagree with me that it doesn't matter if they are kids of teachers, but there is just too much evidence to suggest that nepotism exists at schools and it definitely exists in my school.
One of the other 2 boys was the other kid from my class who participated in the dance skit in 3rd grade so I knew he was a legitimate threat. 2 kids had to be eliminated so I knew I will have to take down the other 2 boys. The tension started to get dense. But I am glad it didn't hinder my performance and I clear the semi-finals. And to those who earlier disagreed with me, the eliminated ones were the 2 boys.
I got selected for the finals along with the 3 other girls. This wasn't good news for me as they had an advantage over me. I decided to perform the light song as a depressing song and a huge crowd might not be a very good mix. I added something in my performance that I now call "the ace up my sleeve". This ace was a 7-second slow-motion walk which I had perfected over 4 years.
On came the big day not too later, let me paint the scene for you. There were about 200 people in the air-conditioned room with an elevated hardwood stage which is lit by about 6 stage lights. I could actually see the pressure mixed with the air. My parents were there too. This was a major event attended by VIPs of the school so we all had to go all out. We had to dress up as well. I wore the same costume I wore at the exhibitive function at Shah auditorium which was a shiny green jacket and some black jeans (I might still have it to this date). The time to perform came around and I was trembling with anxiety but as soon as reached the stage and stood atop it, the lights overpowered the eyes of everyone else that were on me. I couldn't see anyone else, but I didn't have to. I felt calm. I did my performance, everybody clapped, I got off the stage and took a sigh of relief. Such a weight was off my puny shoulders. The other 3 people performed and then we all sat somewhere waiting for the results as the principal proceeded with her rubbish speech. The judges took their time discussing the results. Meanwhile, I ate my lunch and got chatting with the 2 staff-childs and we exchanged harmless quips.
The moment of truth arrived after a while, I could hardly breathe. Everyone else felt the tension as well, it was pin-drop silence in the auditorium as one of the judges announced the first position. It was me. I won.
I jumped with triumph as everyone else clapped. I went to the stage to claim my award. It felt exhilarating. The 2nd place was won by the girl who wasn't a staff child (I have had second thoughts about nepotism since that day). The goal was finally fulfilled. People congratulated me, my parents were on cloud 9, I still remember a certain Vineeta ma'am saying to me, "I have become your fan". The slow-motion walk was a tremendous success, it became my trademark move. After that, I was consulted for every function, festival, dance performance, and whatnot in the upcoming 2 years. After everything that happened, I thought-
WHY I GAVE UP DANCING, & THE LAST DOSE OF THE DRUG
I have already told you about why I stopped going to dance lessons. I also got busier with other things so dance is just a fond memory to me now, but the biggest reason why I left dancing was the double standard at school. Let me explain that a bit more. When I came to the senior wing of my school (6th grade), it was like a new world, and I don't mean that in a good way at all. There was obviously a different dance teacher and she was the definition of sexism. She has, on several occasions, openly said that she doesn't want any boys near her dance room. There is no value of actual talent or new people, it is all about connections. And this dance teacher, doesn't matter how much I exaggerate, is just an enabler. I haven't even begun to explain the sorts of bizarre girls that hang out in the dance room. I have seen seniors, juniors, and girls from the same grade stay in the dance room for days! Just because the teacher is a stupid enabler, they do whatever the hell they want with other students. They are the ones who judge you at auditions, they judge if you are fit to enter the dance room or participate in a performance, and boys don't even get consideration. The teacher treats them like her daughters and boys are welcomed with the disgust that you show to an unwanted cockroach that slips into your room. I didn't want to involve myself with these hooligans. I just ignored them thinking they are just jealous because I've got a penis and they don't.
Coming to the story of the last time I ever danced. It was the middle of 8th grade. A circular for an intersection 'mathematical' competition was announced. The rules of the competition were:
Depict elements of mathematics (like shapes, symbols, arithmetic operations) using dance.
The maths teacher who was also our class teacher asked for kids to give their names and my friend (the flower vase) urged me that we should give our names as well. I wasn't interested in the dance itself but more intrigued by the class bunking and hanging around opportunities that this dance would create. So I gave my name.
Now, some of you might wonder why I wasn't interested in the dance. The first reason is that no one other than 3 kids (including myself) had previously taken dance lessons. And I am not body shaming anyone but I don't think that kids wearing uniforms that are a centimeter away from tearing apart and exposing what's beneath have the right level of agility and flexibility to dance. And my friend is one of those people. There were 3 boys and 5-6 girls on the team. The song was a mashup of 3-4 popular songs like Taki Taki, Magenta Riddim, Scooby-Doo Pa Pa. I had to choreograph the steps for the boys and I kept it fairly simple otherwise my friend wouldn't be able to do it. We used long elastics to make polygon shapes. 2 extra boys were hired to hold placards at the back corners of the stage so the dumbasses could also understand what mathematical elements we were depicting.
That one month was golden. We would spend almost the whole day practicing, playing around, playing truth and dare, and whatnot. We had the concurrence of our class teacher so we could whatever the hell we wanted. It was the best month of my school life. But don't get me wrong, it wasn't all well and good. Whenever there is a group, there have to be fallouts. The girls were a bunch of pus- ehmm.. scaredy cats. They always wanted to go back to class worrying about the classwork and what the other teachers would think, and it's okay if they want to go, but they want everyone to go along with them or they would rat out the others. There were several fights because of this but it was all worked out. All in all, the best month indeed. The performance went extremely well. Of course, because I was on the team, how could we get anything less than 1st position (show off).
CONCLUSION
Dance will always hold a place in my heart. It affected my life in my ways. I even got my first phone because of dance.
In the end, I'd just like to say that try to be as independent with your talents as possible. What I mean by that is don't let the validation of others determine your skill. My dance experience was spoiled by the stupid things that occurred at school and if by any chance my school dance teacher is reading this, please fix the aforementioned double standard and sexism.
Hope you guys had fun reading this. Do share any such stories of your own in the comment section.
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