Arangetram Part 3 - "I thought I said no ice in the mango lassi!"

The audience got their own stretch break and exited the auditorium to partake in some samosas and mango lassi (my idea), meet with any friends who arrived late, and exchange comments about my dance. Of course, I wasn't aware of any of this, since I was having my own panic attack backstage after someone mentioned that part of my costume, the center piece that connects to one of my legs, had nearly come off. "It wasn't obvious, I swear," she tried to convince me. We had forgotten to tighten the hooks. I would remember that for my last costume.


Someone brought me lassi. I forgot to use a straw and poured it right into my mouth. I got a mouthful of ice cubes. I was so mad that I spit it back into the cup and refused to drink any more, even after someone took all the ice out. I'm generally not like that (okay, maybe sometimes...), but I was in such a crappy mood. However, I cooperated a little better during this second costume change and was able to chill for a few minutes before the end of intermission. My necklace was changed AGAIN despite my protests (which was accompanied by several minutes of frantic pinning (and stabbing)), and I was given another massive layer of makeup and Vaseline that would hopefully last me through four dances. Sanj, who forgot to take pictures during the interlude, remembered to take them again.

See that bottle? It contained glucose powder dissolved in water. It was pretty gross.

I was feeling much less tensed by now and my body had finally stretched out. I entered the stage to my favorite dance, Alarulu Kuriyaga, which I executed without issues.

The next dance was Hanuman Chalisa, the one which my mom had requested Jothi Aunty to choreograph especially for me. I had practiced this song to the voice of MS Subbulakshmi, but Geetha Aunty had her own unique style to singing it, which was just as gorgeous. I had a lot of fun onstage. I ended with the bhajan twirl as Sravanthi spotlighted and dimmed on me. She did it a little late, but that was perfectly fine because I was handling the dizziness pretty well. Usually, I teeter around for a bit, but I managed to stay firmly on the pink X until the lights were completely dim. I bowed, but before I walked off stage, I spun the other way to undizzy myself (and received a few chuckles from the audience).


JA introduced my last padam, Kalai Thooki. I remember to stretch my quads for this one...usually I don't and end up screwing the poses because I pull a muscle or something. The poses came out fine, as did most of the dance, except for one part where Geetha Aunty sang one line twice, realized her mistake, and switched into the next line of the song. I had to do some crappy improvisation that probably did not remotely fit the words. Luckily, I don't think anyone caught that. At the end of Kalai Thooki, I made the split second decision to actually end in a Nataraja pose. Luckily, it held up until the lights dimmed. Yay. I'm getting good at this impromptu thing.