no more dance? WHAT??

oh BOY

Yesterday was our show, Bhavayami Raghu Ramam. I shall tell you about it. It consisted of several Bharata Natyam pieces, including a varnam (the long, central dance) named Bhavayami Raghu Ramam. This is a song written by the king of Kerala, Swathi Thirunal, in praise of Lord Rama. It essentially tells a compact version of the entire Ramayanam broken up into separate chapters. Our little dance group which consisted of me, Mamtha, Pranathi, Bhavana, and Nityasri divided up the different roles in the Ramayanam for this dance. We also did a Pushpanjali at the beginning and a Thillana at the end. Between these dances, our teacher Jothi Raghavan presented a few solo pieces, also about Lord Rama.

The the whole thing was awesome several reasons:

1. We didn't screw up that much!
2. We actually had an audience! I would estimate about 150-200 people came, and that is incredible considering that we had expected about 30. We were even contemplating locking people inside the building after Neha's arangetram the previous day, but we didn't have to.
3. We got Lindt chocolates as gifts! Caramel!
4. We had a pizza party afterwards! We went to JA's house and I was actually able to eat pizza since I got to change into a pair of JA's clothes (how are you supposed to eat with that belt on ??).
5. It didn't rain! What more can you ask for?

So, yeah, I am rather sad that it's all over. For the past four weeks, the five of us had been attending daily rehearsals for three or four hours and so all of a sudden, there's a lot more time in the day. It's like post-arangetram again--I've got this void to fill. Well right now, I should have no trouble with that...MCAT studying...but still. It'll be weird not seeing Jothi Aunty and the musicians every single day. It has been a very dance-filled summer, what with performing at Martha's Vineyard, Nritya Haram, lighting for Nayaki, doing the little thing at Chinmaya, and then Bhavayami.

My post MCAT plans include:
- going to several amusement parks
- finishing my thesis
- designing a T-shirt
- cleaning my room,
- playing soccer in the rain again
- watching Magadheera (which, by the way, is supposedly excellent)
- attending some more grad parties
- biking to Alewife in a half hour (22 mph FTW). it's gonna be epic
- daily blogging (!!!!).

But now, I have only 72 hours left to study for the MCAT and I guess I should start. After I eat something first. Photographs from the production will appear in my next post.