View full sizeMallika Kodavatiganti 13, of Hershey Middle School performs her Bharathnatyam Arangetram at the Hershey Area Playhouse Saturday, August, 20, 2011.The dancer begins to train while a toddler.
Over the years, she devotes countless hours to pre-dawn practices and grueling after-school sessions. Gradually, she masters intricate foot steps, hand gestures, neck movements and symbolic eye glances. She studies technique, tradition, etiquette.
The dancer becomes a faithful disciple of her teacher, whom she treats with respect and reverence.
By the time she is a teenager, the danseuse — now a confident, disciplined young woman — is ready to debut on stage.
Bharathnatyam is the dance; arangetram the debut performance.
What started as a form of worship in India thousands of years ago survives today as a thriving cultural art form that heralds the coming of age of a young dancer.
This sacred Indian dance is part rite of passage — not unlike a Bat Mitzvah or a Quincenera, Latin America’s equivalent to the Sweet 16 — and part auspicious beginning, the young student having blossomed into an accomplished dancer.
For Indian families, the arangetram is a major event in a daughter’s life, and they spare no expense in the planning of the occasion. The most elaborate arangetrams rival weddings — with stylish invitations, expensive wardrobe and jewelry, hundreds of guests, catered meals, gifts and plum venues that are booked, in some cases, years in advance.
“This is just the beginning,” said Mallika Kodavatiganti, 13, who performed her arangetram two weeks ago at the Hershey Area Playhouse. “It gets harder. Even though I’ve done years of training, this show is the starting point.”
'CLOSER TO MY CULTURE'
Mallika began studying and training for her debut recital when she was 4. Over the years, she has juggled school obligations and extra curricular activities with long practice sessions.
“It is difficult,” said Mallika, an eighth grader at Hershey Middle School. “Sometimes I didn’t have time to practice.”
Arangetram literally means “ascending the stage” and for many girls marks the first time they perform before a live audience.
Dancers perform solo on the stage for up to three and a half hours. Each dance is between 10 and 25 minutes long and calls for a dress change. Musical accompaniment is provided by a vocalist (often the teacher) and an ensemble that includes traditional Indian instruments such as the Mridangam, a percussion instrument, ghatkam, an earthen pot and Morsing, a wind percussion instrument.
The rhythmic foot steps, facial expressions and hand gestures of the Bharathnatyam represent spiritual awakening and longing for enlightenment.
Literally, the dance form encompasses hundreds of different steps and movements — some of them as slight and subtle as the shift of the eyes.
“There were some mess-ups but you try not to make them noticeable,” said Mallika, who took a plenty of breaks during her dances to compose her nerves. “I was a little nervous. I tried not to be...but when she starting doing my make-up, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Its beauty and grace aside, Bharathnatyam provides a critical cultural link.
“I was still learning about my heritage. It definitely helped me become closer to my culture,” said Megha Subramanian, a junior at East Pennsboro High School, who performed her arangetram on Aug. 6. “At that age I didn’t know that much about the Indian culture and I’m still learning.”
Megha said studying the Bharathnatyam is a nice addition to the regular visits she and her family pay to India. The dance reinforces cultural lessons and more.
“Visiting there is a good way to experience my culture but doing the dance also helps me learn about my religion,” she said.
Bharathnatyam is rooted in the Hindu faith and many of the dances are named after and pay homage to Hindu gods.
For Mallika’s mother, Dr. Devyani Chowdhury, a pediatric cardiologist who juggles a busy schedule, the dance form has filled in gaps, allowing her daughter — and through sheer exposure, her brother and younger sister — to be immersed in the Indian culture.
“It helps them get grounded,” Chowdhury said. “For a middle school kid to be proud of their heritage and to do that in public — that they are not embarrassed in public to say they are of Indian heritage, it’s a statement. I think it helps them later in life.”
A MAJOR INVESTMENT
The arangetram is no small undertaking for the student — nor the family.
Girls start as early as age 3 or four studying anywhere from eight to 10 years before teachers deem they are ready for their arangetram.
“I thought about quitting more than once,” said Megha, who performed her debut dance before 300 guests. “I think it starts to happen when you start taking classes and you are in the middle of dance and you practice over and over and you still mess up and the teacher gets angry. In the end, you know you are not going to quit. After all this time — after 11 years, I’m just not going to give up on it.”
Parents typically give long hours to transporting daughters to distant teachers. Mallika’s teacher lives in New York, and over the years, Chowdhury, made the roundtrip countless of times.
The financial investment is considerable.
From lessons, transportation, costly handmade dance costumes, jewelry, catering, rentals, and more, Bharathnatyam and the obligatory arangetram can set families back tens of thousands of dollars.
“It’s not for every one,” Chowdhury said.
Lessons are comparable to long-term private ballet or piano lessons.
No matter how grueling the demands of this ancient dance, few students who embark on it quit.
“Those who come into this already understand what the course is and how committed they need to be,” said Vatsala Srinivas, a Bharathnatyam teacher in Cockeysville, Md., who teaches dozens of students from central Pennsylvania, including Megha. “It’s a lot of work. They definitely have to put a lot of hours of practice at home.”
It takes anywhere from six to 10 years for a student to master this art form before they are ready to perform, said Srinivas, who teaches the Tanjore form, which she describes as structured and disciplined.
A 25-year teacher veteran, Srinivas said she always knows when a student is ready for her arangetram. “They understand the dance well,” she said.
RESPECT THE GURU
Perhaps one of the most endearing features of this ancient dance form is the relationship between the teacher — or guru — and her student.
Bharathnatyam teachers are revered and held in the esteem of parents or elders.
In keeping with the Indian tradition, students never call their teachers by their given name, but refer to them by an affectionate term — usually “auntie.”
“It’s a very cultural thing the concept of the guru,” Chowdhury said. “In India it’s very strong. The teacher really is on a pedestal. In India we say there are three people you can never pay back: Your mother, your father and you can never pay back your teacher. If God asks you who you would pick, the teacher or God, you pick your teacher because she showed you the way to God. It’s that sentiment. It’s a big deal. It’s not taken casually that relationship.”
Mallika was taught by Saavitri Ramanand, a popular artist in India and part of the famous Bombay sisters.
Respect for the teacher is crucial throughout the learning process, Srinivas said.
“This is such a sacred art form. To respect the guru and art form it’s very important,” she said. “It’s not a casual thing. They have to have respect and it’s with a lot of reverence that this art comes to you. I always tell them you have to have respect for the art, the guru and all elders. They learn the art form, the culture of the country and they learn the basic values and morals that go with it.”
Srinivas said a teacher and pupil develop a strong bond over the years.
“I’ve seen them grow in front of me,” she said. “When they come to me, they are five, and then when they finish, they go off to college. It’s like I formed them.”
Srinivas still gets phone calls from girls who left her tutelage years ago.
“Some will be in California and they’ll call me and say, ‘Auntie, I miss you,’” she said.
Srinivas has seen a growing interest in Bharathnatyam among non-Indian women. She said Americans are increasingly becoming interested in its fitness value and its cultural and artistic expression.
Once they perform their arangetram, girls continue to advance their knowledge and technique of the dance. Some go on to perform professionally or teach.
The uninitiated is understandably dazzled by the grace, beauty and vigor displayed at an arangetram. And like any worthwhile cultural art form, it pays to do a little homework. The subtle hand, eye and neck gestures of the dance — not to mention the athleticism — is best appreciated with a little prior knowledge.
“Even Indians don’t understand everything what is going on,” Chowdhury said. “We all need a little tutorial. It’s like an Italian opera. You have to research beforehand to understand.”