Friday, September 24, 2010

The Crazy White-Chick at the Indian Dance Class 101

Yep.  That would be me.  In case you haven't heard, I LOVE Bollywood movies and I watch a lot of them.  So when I found out that Arya International (the dance company that provides the dancers for many Bollywood movies) was teaching a dance class in my area, I totally went for it!  I have to say, I was pretty nervous before the first class because I thought everyone would look at me funny and wonder, "what's that white girl doing here?"  Last night, however, I went anyway just to see if I would like it.

Well, I did feel a bit uncomfortable at first. Not because of my race, mind you, but because I was the only adult in the class!  (They combined the teenage and adult classes.)  Not only that, the other girls were students at the school where I teach!  Their parents (including dads and brothers) stayed to watch us in our first ever Indian dance class.  How embarrassing!  I almost called it a day, but as soon as I started dancing, I forgot all about them.  As it turns out, I LOVE Indian dancing and I'm actually not too bad at it.  I was happy that I wasn't that person who stumbles and holds up the whole class.  I kept up with those 16-year-olds pretty well, if  I do say do myself! 

We did a half-hour of Classical Indian dance and a whole hour of Bollywood-style dancing.  Barefoot.  I was afraid my feet were going to kill me, but they didn't.  Hooray!  Our teacher is a real Bollywood dancer and had flown over from India.  He has been in several Bollywood movies as a back-up dancer!  I'm SO going to look carefully in the background of some of those movies to see if I see him.  :-)

Anyway, I hope to chronicle my experiences in this blog as I continue to take this dance class.  It's just too much fun not to!  Also, it might  be entertaining for some to read about the old-white chick in the teenage Indian dance class.  I'm starting to think I was Indian in a previous life.  Not that I really believe in reincarnation, mind you.  I just have always REALLY loved Indian culture, even when I was a child.  There's no real reason for me to like it this much. ... or to be SO happy while dancing Indian-style. 

I want to challenge all of you out there to take a class in something you're interesting in even if you feel ridiculous.  It might be worth it!
What do you really love that defies explanation?

7 comments:

  1. and the fact that you were brave enough to try the class despite the audience might make some of those adults wish they had signed up for the class. If I lived near you, I would have gone with you. Sounds like lots of fun and probably good exercise too!!

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  2. Thanks for the support, Christi! I have to say, I'm a bit sore in the legs today.

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  3. Cool Shea ! What a great example you set for your students !

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  4. Thanks! I hope I get to keep going. They're going to let it go on for another week, but if more people don't sign up for the adult class, they are going to cancel it. :-(

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  5. I'd join to help raise numbers but it's a bit of a commute...
    It sounds like it's great fun so I wish I were closer.

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