Personal Essay: My Journey As A Arangetram

It all started when my guru gave me the ghungroo, on the ghungroo puja day. I looked at my parents and their eyes were filled with tears. They were so proud because, getting the ghungroo, is like a step taken forward, from our side, to promote our culture. The fact that my guru gave me the ghungroo, without a second thought, filled me with immense courage and determination. She could have refused to give me the ghungroo or said that I wasn't ready, but she didnt. She was confident that I’ll do well in my Arangetram. It struck me then, that people around me, were so enthusiastic and hopeful, and were expecting me to live up to their expectations and give them immense happiness, by giving my best in my Arangetram. My journey, as a Bharatanatyam
I was so scared for this part of the recital because, since the very beginning of my journey in dance, I have always lacked stamina. My strength has always been abhinaya or facial expression. So, my teacher always used to give more of devotional songs to perform, with decent amount of footwork in it. But, here, the kind of intricate footwork, plus the pace at which i had to dance to, gave me goosebumps. in the first part, i had to stay on stage, for almost an hour. so, the first thing that I worked on was my increasing my stamina. The most basic and the very first trick that my guru taught me was breathing through my nose, because if I start breathing through my mouth, I’ll lose energy immediately and my dance would become weak. So, to get me used to it, my teacher would make sure that I breathe through my nose and if, at any point, I start breathing through my mouth, she would make me stop and start the whole piece from the beginning. For the first two-three weeks, my legs used to hurt so bad. More than my legs, my back used to hurt because, before this, I had never danced for more than half an hour. And, since, I was in the tenth grade, at that time, i had to take out time to study too. But this used to leave me with no energy at all. I used to end up procrastinating and not completing my homework. But, it was only a matter of time till I got used to the routine. I used to go to school in the morning, try to finish my homework
Classical dance forms originated from the southern part of india, and gradually, spread to the northern part. But, it is still not very prevalent in the north. Now that i am considered to be a full-fledged Bharatanatyam dancer, i can further my guru’ s efforts in promoting this art form. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to promote my culture and tradition, in the northern part of india. When I got my first performance, after the arangetram, I was so happy that, finally, I had got a chance to bring out the best of my culture. My relatives, living in the South, never thought that I would carry on with Bharatanatyam for long. What they didn’t keep in mind was how strongly Bharatantyam is engrained in our culture that even after being born and brought up in the north, I had the natural instinct to start learning Bharatanatyam, since the age of