Winter Funk - 2006

On December 10th my sister and I danced our hearts out as part of the Shiamak Davar Winter Funk show. This was held at the Meadowvale Theatre in Mississauga. We'd been attending the dance classes since the end of September. We started because we wanted to get back into dancing (we are trained in classical dance - Bharatanatyam) and we wanted to get back into being social and just generally keep active and busy. We were both going through our own respective troubled times and needed a distraction, to say the least. She actually checked out the class first and then dragged me to it and I'm really glad that she did. We made a pact that we would not let each other miss one class. I must say, the pact worked out 90% of the time. What began as something I'd have to convince myself to attend, became something I looked forward to every week. Something that the character of Elle Woods said on Legally Blonde entered into my head and stuck, namely, "Exercise makes endorphins. Endorphins make you happy." I started believing it because I became happier. I loved the world after the dance classes. But the main factor was that our dance instructor was amazing. She just had endless amounts of energy and I wanted to be that way.

We met and have now made a lot of new friends. In the beginning, it was a bit awkward ofcourse but it was thankful to see that no one who came there had any airs and graces about them. Our group of 25-30 was a mishmash of different age groups. We had kids who were 12, 14 years old followed by teenagers and people in their early twenties. We had a couple of mother daughter teams and we even had three guys who had no problems with dancing with the rest of the mostly female group. I was even happy to bully the youngest of the three guys and he called me his sister on the day of the show. (and just so all you concerned folks realize, I was bullying him by making him remember his positions etc.)

We learnt dances to two songs - one called the Rishi Medley which consisted of three older songs made famous by an actor called Rishi Kapoor. The other one is called Chori Chori...well, the original is Chori Chori by Aneela & Arash. Ours was Chori/Informer remix. It was fast paced as you can imagine. We all came together to learn to dance, support each other and have a ton of FUN! All of the above were accomplished.

As the date for the show neared, we had dance practices during the weekends at someone's place. I have to mention "Momma" because she became a mother to all of us and invited us to her place for practice. She also went to the trouble of baking cookies and other yummy treats and even threw in a yummy lunch. I christened her our collective "Momma" because she truly enjoys cooking and was happy to tend to us like her flock. During these more informal practices, we had the chance to sit and talk and to really get to know each other and it was amazing. At one such session, we talked in depth about parents and kids (within the Indian context and scenarios) and it was a coming together of mothers and daughters.

Anyway, Sunday, the day of the show arrived, and the previous day we had had a three hour dance practice at Momma's place. We arrived at the theatre at 11:30a.m. and from then began our excitement, nervousness, laughter, fun and dancing. We first went through positions on stage for both our dances. That was followed by technicals, where each group danced to their particular song. It was during this time that all of us, in our different groups, were able to see the entire show as it would be run and we cheered each other on. We were to perform for two different shows...the first show was at 4p.m. and the second one was at 7p.m. So you can imagine how tired we'd have been at the end of the night. We would have danced six times in total, including the technicals. But none of us complained. We had enough adrenaline coursing through us. The rehearsal hall was a cacophony of voices and people making sure everyone looked good. Our group even had the two older guys insisting some of the women put more make up on. lol

Finally it was show time and it went off very well. I think the audience were impressed by the entire presentation. They learnt a lot about Shiamak Davar and were able to see all age groups and talent levels perform. We even had to run into the audience, after our oldies number, and dance among the audience and it was such a boost to see people dancing and clapping in their seats. The night, eventually, came to an end and we said our goodbyes and gave each other tons of hugs before heading home.

The next morning, I logged onto my email account to find tons of emails from the dance group so we're all missing each other, our classes and keeping in touch. The next session begins in February and I hope many, if not all of them, will come back. It's been an amazing experience and this past week I definitely experienced withdrawal symptoms. ' But, it has been an accomplishment of sorts as well since after 12+ years I got back on a stage.

http://h1.ripway.com/tishnagi/ChoriInformer.wma : If you'd like to hear Chori/Informer here it is.

Here are some pics (click on each one individually to see a bigger version):

An impromptu group pic. My sister's right at the back and I'm at the left corner. This is only some of us from our group.
Mita&meKonark,Me,Momma&Shashi

Varsh&Mita (Konark&Rishi in the background)