How I Introduced Dance to my 4-year-old
ACT I, SCENE I- I(then a 4 -year old)am standing outside my elder sister’s Odissi dance class trying to imitate her dance moves, as the teacher wouldn’t allow me inside the class.
ACT II, SCENE I- I (now a 33-year old)am literally on the feet of my 4-year-old trying every trick up my sleeve to convince her to at least go inside her dance class.
Some insight into the plot
All my life I have loved dance.NO, it didn’t run in the genes. Though I belong to a culturally inclined family, dance debuted in my life through my elder sister. The institution she learned at had a very strict age criterion. With my Dad mostly posted out of the town, it would be a thrice- in- a -week ritual for my Mom, my sister, and me to go there. Throughout that painfully slow half an hour journey by cycle rickshaw, I would be as excited as my sister, only to be ending up hovering outside her class for the next hour.
Finally when the time came I was taken in and thus started my relationship with dance. It was then when I truly understood, behind the glitz and glamour of stage shows lies hundreds of hours of practice, body conditioning, and immense respect and dedication towards the craft. It wasn’t a joyride for me either. I still remember cycling the 8kms every day with my sister during summer breaks in the scorching heat, getting beaten up by my Guruji(YES..it was normal back then )for slight mistakes, staring at the empty pot of water which was refilled according to his whim and fancy and most difficult -balancing studies with all these, which was a non-negotiable front.
How things took off from there would make for another story, but the fact is dance played a very important role in my life.
So when it came to introducing my daughter to dance I was obviously super excited. I had full confidence in G.J Mendel that two of my dancing DNAs have taken direct flights to both her feet. Fine, she was never keen on dancing to rhymes or hardly honored my request to break into a gig in front of my friends, but again I had full faith in Genetics. So I looked up for Indian Classical Dances near me and found a Kuchipudi class near my society in Delhi.
ACT II, SCENE II-I am sitting in this room packed with other kids and no Mommies. I see all these small kids dancing flawlessly to the teacher’s commands wondering, “Am I late, when did this lot start”??The teacher asks my daughter to come to the dancing area, words which just got lost in thin air. I am too embarrassed to even smile at the teacher and turn to face my daughter and this time my eyes speak, which works. She goes ahead, stands like a statue only to return a minute later.
This continued for a month, with little or no progress. I knew like professions don't run in the blood, it wasn’t unusual for any art form to give the heredity bus a miss. But the dancer in me was not willing to give up. I resolved to give this exercise one last month before putting my hopes to rest. It was then when one day in a flow of conversation the teacher got to know about my dance background and asked me if I would like to learn it myself in front of her as a last resort to motivate her. I had already had a long break from dance so I jumped at the opportunity. The fact that I was the only 30 something in a room full of kids with an average age of 9, hardly bothered me.
And miraculously it worked.
Gradually her reluctance turned into some interest in the art form. It brought her great joy in practicing the steps with me and sometimes even correcting me!!
It was a double whammy for me-not only was I learning a new dance form but it was also extremely fulfilling to see my daughter tap her little feet to the beats of Kuchipudi.
After 8 months.
ACT II, SCENE III-Both me and my 4-year- old are performing together on the stage, all decked up in beautiful Kuchipudi costumes.
Today she is in the process of learning 3 different dance forms and yes loving them as well.
What did I learn???
Just like, all the kids know how to babble and we only introduce particular languages and grammar to them, they also know how to dance. We just have to enable them, give them space, normalize it, and make it a part of the culture. Don’t expect to teach them to dance, just focus on the joy and keep the expectations very low.
Well most important lesson: Genetics is for diabetes, don’t put your money on it!!!
