A couple of years ago, a photojournalism graduate student from Boston University named Varsha Yeshwant approached Chhandika, the dance group with which I am closely affiliated, asking for permission to create a multi-media project around our dance. Specifically, she said: “I want this to serve as a small window into the world of Kathak and [...]
Archive for the ‘Dance/Arts’ Category
Dance oasis
Posted in Dance/Arts, Moments, tagged ankle bells, Chhandika, dance class, dancing pregnant, Gretchen Hayden, kathak, Varsha Yeshwant on January 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Creative life, you say?
Posted in Being the people, Dance/Arts, Writing, tagged creative life, dance, kathak, time to write, Writer Unboxed, writing, writing life on November 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
A couple of months ago, a friend—an artistic filmmaker—asked me: how do you sustain a creative life or even a creative project in the midst of children, work, home, health and volunteering? She asked this not as a rhetorical question, but as someone who seemed truly to expect that I would have an answer for [...]
Divergent thinking
Posted in Being the people, Dance/Arts, Parenting, Writing, tagged arts, creativity, divergent thinking, education, Ken Robinson on November 6, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A friend of mine posted on her Facebook page a link to a fascinating talk by Sir Ken Robinson about education and creativity. Fascinating, but, especially for a parent, worrisome, for it makes me feel that, with my daughters in regular, public schools, there is little hope of them retaining the creativity with which they [...]
Disappointment
Posted in Being the people, Dance/Arts, Parenting, Writing, tagged auditions, disappointment, kathak, revisions on October 26, 2010 | 1 Comment »
K doesn’t like tags in clothing. (Who does?) They scratch her, and she always wants them taken out. (Why haven’t more clothing makers adopted the tagless system of printing the relevant information on the inside of the neckline?) A few days ago, we went clothing shopping, and she picked out a few items, including a [...]
Reflections on the death of a guru
Posted in Being the people, Dance/Arts on July 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday was Guru Purnima. Traditionally, it is a day for devotees to honor their guru. Today, for anyone studying an art form, it translates into a day for honoring one’s teachers. I am grateful for my own kathak dance teacher, Gretchen Hayden, who would balk at the term “guru” applied to her (and who has [...]
