How I walked into Bharatanatyam by sheer chance

My journey in Bharatanatyam is both ordinary and extraordinary. Most dancers have had the privilege of growing up in the culture where their parents send them to study dance or some have had the exposure in their younger years either in college or through the influences of their parents, while others, like me, discovered this dance later in life.

I grew up in a middle class family in Beijing, China. My parents always wanted me to be the straight girl who does well in school, go to a college and later on get a good job and lead an ordinary life. Rebellious by nature I wanted something other than the same path everyone walks on. I wanted to make my own life, at the age of 21, I came to the US and pursued a degree in art with a concentration in graphic design, a field my family never saw me pursuing. Fast forward to 2015, I was taking some zumba class and that evening, they had a BollyX demo which I had so much fun with and the fast beat in bollywood music instantly clicked with me versus mainstream American pop which I never liked.

I attended more bollyx sessions and decided to take on bollywood classes because I like the music so much. When I was growing up, I was always fascinated with India, even though I knew next to zero, the colors, the energy, and the history always intrigued me. When I was taking bollywood classes, I remember I was studying a choreography from a song Nagada Sang Dhol, the instructor used some classical steps (later on I learned it was ta tei tei ta steps), and mudras such as alapadma, I become interested in the steps almost right away and was curious to learn more. I don’t remember much of the details but I remember googling bharatanatyam, back then I couldn’t even pronounce it properly. I didn’t take on bharatanatyam right away until one day after a bollywood class, one of the child’s parent mentioned to each other that if one really wants to learn indian dance, they should study classical indian dance and I thought to myself, why not give it a try.

I googled bharatanatyam schools and found a large local school that came up first on my search. Back then I had no idea of what different banis are out there or what to look forward to when searching for a school. I went for my first class thinking to just give it a try, never knew that I instantly connected to the dance and decided to continue. Long story short, after 6 months of learning at the school, I felt like the school wasn’t for me, and I needed better foundation and more detail orientated teaching. I met a girl who also does Bharatanatyam at the company I was working for at the time, Aspen Technology. She told me, “why don’t you come try a class with my guru, she teaches Kalakshetra style”. I remember googling Kalakshetra at the time, and knowing nothing about it and reading its info didn’t make a lot of sense. Nonetheless, I went for the class, and decided to continue with my friend’s guru. She polished all my foundation and taught a complete beginner like me with diligence and patience. I remember learning alarippu and I had so much trouble with the rhythm because I didn’t know music.

Carnatic music was the second thing I decided to learn in order for me to better understand the dance. It was not until I started learning a Keerthanam on lord Ganesha did I realized I didn’t knew anything about hindu mythology, I decided to read, I bought books and found a teacher who teachers hindu mythology and shlokas online and took on that as the third thing, then I realized it’s not enough, I need to learn the language, and I started taking Hindi lessons in 2018, little did I know later I need to learn Tamil as well because if you don’t understand the lyrics or what you are emoting to then how is abhinaya is going to come alive on your face?

As you can see, it has been a tremendous effort for me just to learn Bharatanatyam well. I want to stress the fact that I have practiced almost day and night in order to reach a level where I am today and I still have milestones to accomplish.

October 2022, I was laid off from my tech job, and since my arangetram is in August the following year and I have worked in tech for 10 years, I thought this would be the time for me to start something of my own in dance. I started Nritya Studios, an online membership based website that offers Bharatanatyam, fitness, core and nutrition, it is yet to be launched but through strenuous practice in the last 7 months, I have realized something that i have never put too much thought in. The spirituality of the dance, I always felt connected, but didn’t understand what was pulling me towards the dance and led me to choose this dance over my other style, but I realized recently, it is the spiritual path in this dance, the bhakti, the practice of how to control your mind, the practice of looking at this world in the most simplistic way and how to let go of your desires and self, how your actions can affect others. I’ve noticed my abhinaya has also reached another level since this realization.

Bharatanatyam has transformed me, it keeps me grounded, connected to Asian culture and my Asian roots but also taught me to look at life in a brand new way.