it's over!

my arangetram is officially over. everything went SO WELL! it was so smooth and the turnout was great. i'm really happy and pleased with the event :]

a couple more thank-you's (haha)

- my family, amma & anna & bharat for doing tons of work and making it possible.... also my extended family(aunts, uncles, cousins) for helping with everything and coming early - I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

- Roopa Aunty- she put soo much time & effort into teaching me and helping us plan this event THANKS SO MUCH!

- the musicians- Bama Aunty, Shankar Sir, Ramana Sir, & Ramesh Sir- without you all i couldn't have done it, thank you for being so talented & it was a pleasure to have you stay at our house:]

- to everyone who attended ( or didn't)- Thank you all so much for you guidance & support, i really appreciate it! also, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR THE GENEROUS GIFTS!!!:)

rehearsal with orchestra!

the musicians arrived at our house on Sunday, and we were able to have our first rehearsal later that day. It was awesome!, soooooo much better than dancing to taped music all the time :] There are 4 of them, a vocalist, mridangam player, flute player, and veena player. they all seemed to know my songs pretty well, and that made it easier for everyone. Also, all of them are super nice and friendly which is good because they're staying at our house haha. as of tonight, the head count of people staying in this house is 19! Anyway, we've been practicing every day and working through each dance, making changes where necessary and basically just getting accustomed to each other because we depend on each other on stage. Tomorrow is the stage rehearsal. it should take almost all day, we have everything to figure out tomorrow, from decorations and sound systems to stage setup and dancing, so it should be an interesting day.

T-minus 2 days!!!!!!

brochures!!

hi everyone,

another aunty from india arrived today, and she brought with her the brochures for the arangetram! we all love them, they look soooo nice!

less than 2 weeks left!!!

Invitation for the event

some quick info

hi,
here are some little reminders about the program, whether you're attending or not.

- Please RSVP! call 570 366-3633 or send an e-mail to priya.arangetram@gmail.com
--- if you're e-mailing, please state your name and how many are coming if possible

- also, people have been asking me what to wear for this event. Here's what we've been telling them: This is, in some ways of thinking, a dance graduation, so you can dress like you would for an upscale graduation party or nice Sweet 16.

* i don't know if anyone's even reading this thing, but it sorta makes me feel good haha. omg omg omg omg today, the arangetram is ONE MONTH AWAY!!!!!! only 1 month till august 1st; i guess i should start practicing... HAHAHA jk jk don't worry

full house

ok this post is actually for today, june 25th hahaha. family from India arrived today! My grandparents, two aunts, and one of my grandmother's sisters came for the Arangetram and they'll be staying a while. I'm really glad they came, it was really good of them. So instead of 3 or 4 people in the house, there are 8 or 9! the more the merrier!

You are cordially invited...

June 16th- the invitations arrived from India. A couple days late, but we'll live. they look SO GOOD! though I'm not the biggest fan of that picture...
we started writing out the addresses that night and the first batch was in the mail the next morning. the rest were done quickly and only a few still have to be sent now.
this makes this Arangetram legit. Like it's really actually going to happen. haha anyway they look really nice so don't forget to RSVP! Please call or leave a comment on this blog for your RSVP

PHOTO OP!!!

On May 31st, I had my second photoshoot. These pics were for the brochures, which will be handed out on the day of the event. I had 5 costumes, full make-up, and complete jewelry. it was just like it will be on August 1st, except for the dancing part.
It was supposed to start at 3 pm but the traffic was crazzzyy and i still had to get to my brother's apartment to get ready. Roopa Aunty and her daughter Rachana came with us that day. We ended up being about 2 hours late. whoops.
Anyway, better late than never. So the photoshoot proceeded, and he took about 200 pictures! i was definitely NOT expecting that many. I changed into one costume, took about 30-40 pics in it, changed into the next one, and so it went on for 5 costumes. The whole thing took about 3 hours and was exhausting for everyone. Except me. somehow, i didn't get tired. hmph. So after a stop at Qdoba's, we headed home. That day was a Sunday and we got home around 12 am. It was the last day of school,though, so it didn't really matter. And then, i was finished school so that was one big thing i didn't have to worry about anymore. Rachana wasn't so lucky though, she had regular classes the next day and she was extremely sleepy. ha ha ha
The photographer emailed us the pictures like 3 days later. surprisingly, almost all of them came out pretty well.

come for the dance, stay for the food

In May we made arrangements with a catering restaurant( my mom is telling me not to disclose the name of the restaurant. whatevs). To choose the menu, we went in for some taste-testing.
it's funny how when we met with the photographer only my parents really wanted to go, but when we went to go eat, the entire family wanted to come. :)
Anyway, the food was super good, and the lady managing the program, Mrs. Malholtra, was also really nice and helpful. In the end we chose 2 appetizers, 4 entrees, and dessert. I think the dinner will turn out really well, especially with all the good food.

Bet you want to come early now, don't ya?!

Quick Trip to India

In the middle of April, my family and I went to India for 8 days. That's by far the shortest India trip I've ever taken, but it was in the middle of school and work and we needed stuff done so it had to be snappy. Our to-do list was like, floor length. The most important thing, however, was to get my costumes stitched. These Bharatanatyam costumes are custom-made to fit you perfectly and are made from sarees.
Chennai is the most dance-involved city in india, so we took a day trip there. Seriously, it was only a day. The flight was in the wee hours of the morning and we took another flight back to Bangalore at night. While we were there, we rested and had lunch at our good friend Nandini's family's house. They fed us and took care of us really well, and her brother helped soo much with going around the city. We went to saree store after saree store, trying to find color combinations and silks to suit me. Finally, 5 sarees were selected. We were all really pleased with the day and its selections.
Back in Bangalore, the sarees had to be given to a tailor for stitching. We gave 2 to the Prabhat Kalavidaru tailors, which is a well-known dance school in Bangalore, and the other 3 to a trusted tailor Mr. Armugam. We were able to take 2 stitched costumes back to America, while the rest were mailed to us.(They came around mid- May and they are sooo pretty!! Everything fit well and they looked really good). But even with the major job out of the way, we still had much to do.
Over the next few days we shopped for temple jewelry, bangles, bindis, make-up, decorations, favors, gifts, and a lot of other stuff for the Arangetram. One day my mom and I were out shopping, and we both ended up with mild heat exhaustion. Walking would make us dizzy. I remember being woken up late at night to be spoon-fed ice cream. haha. My mom had it pretty bad. In the end my dad took her to a local medical clinic where she recieved IV fluids. She was fine after that though.
Within the next 2 days we finished up our duties the best we could, and then we were setting out for home again. Really, going to India for 8 days...

Back to the Beginning

Hi, it's really Priya now.
About time i started blogging on this blog haha. My cousin Raghu has been managing this blog for the past few months, so a big thank you to him! I had a late start so I'm going to write about all the things that happened before and are going to take place with my Arangetram preparations. So.
In 2002 Smt. Roopa Nayak moved with her family from Massachusetts to Orwigsburg, PA. She is a fully trained professional dancer and started giving me lessons soon after moving. Years later, around November 2008, myself, my family, and Roopa Aunty decided I was ready to do an Arangetram. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatanatyam - for more info on Arangetrams and Bharatanatyam. And so began the preparations. August 1st, 2009 was set for the big day. The Blue Mountain High School auditorium was booked. We contacted a bunch of people and finally found and booked an orchestra from Chennai(thanks to Smt. Ramaa Ramesh.) Then we contacted a photographer (also thanks to Ms. Ramesh) and in March I had my first photoshoot.
The photos were taken at Mr. Finny George's office in Philadelphia. these pics were going to be for the invitations only, because we wanted the brochure pics to be in the performance costumes. So i wore my purple and red costume and we had our first make-up test run. Actually, it went quite well. I could barely stop myself from yelling "PHOTO- OP!!" every 5 seconds hehe. The pics came out ok and we had our invitation photos ready.

a trip down memory lane

Given here is a link to glance through a collection of pictures from priya's childhood till now. Please click on the link to access the album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/priya.yashoda/AGlanceThroughPriyaSProfile#

My pics

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance of India, which finds its roots in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. It is believed that Bharatanatyam is mainly a renewal of Cathir, the ancient art of temple dancers. The dance form has been named after Bharata Muni, the author of the Natya Shastra (ancient treatise on classical Indian dance). The word Bharatanatyam is composed of three terms, Bha meaning Bhava or abhinaya (expression), Ra meaning raga (melody) and Ta meaning tala (rhythm). In other words, the dance form is a communion of expression, melody and rhythm.

The oldest of all the classical dance forms in India, Bharatnatyam is also known as the fifth Veda. In the ancient times, it used to be performed by the Devadasis in the temples of Tamilnadu as 'dasiattam'. The postures of the Bharata Natyam dance of India have served as an inspiration for the ancient sculptures in Hindu temples. The postures of the celestial dancers depicted in the scriptures were given the name of Bharatanatyam Mudras on earth. The spirit of Bhakti has been deeply ingrained in Bharata Natyam and it mainly features mythological stories.

The philosophy behind the dance is to search the human soul and unite with the Supreme Being. In the dance form of Bharatnatyam, the artists make use of beautiful hand and eye movements to convey the message. It is more of a personification of the music in a visual form. There are three main elements of Bharata Natyam, namely

• Nritta (rhythmic dance movements)
• Natya (dance combined with a dramatic aspect)
• Nritya (amalgamation of Nritta and Natya)

The credit of bringing Bharatnatyam to its present form goes to the famous quartet of Chinnayya, Ponniah, Sivanandam and Vadivelu of the Tanjore Court. The various forms of the dance, like Alarippu, Jathiswaram, Sabdham, Varnam and Tillana, were also introduced by them. Even the first dance teachers of Bharatanatyam in Tanjore were the descendants of these four brothers only.

Decline of the Dance Form
With time, the devadasis of the temple turned into narthakis of the royal court and prostitution started replacing the devotion of the women. The original technique and themes of Bharatnatyam were modified to suit the new demands. The sacred connotation of the dance form was sacrificed to make it amenable to the entertainment needs of the kings.

Bharatanatyam is considered to be a fire-dance — the mystic manifestation of the metaphysical element of fire in the human body. It is one of the five major styles (one for each element) that include Odissi (element of water), and Mohiniattam (element of air). The movements of an authentic Bharatanatyam dancer resemble the movements of a dancing flame. Contemporary Bharatanatyam is rarely practiced as Natya Yoga, a sacred meditational tradition, except by a few orthodox schools (see Yoga and Dance).

These are a pictures from Priya's photoshoot prior to the Arangetram, depicting the various poses of bharatnatyam.




This is Priya's dance teacher, Smt. Roopa Nayak

This is Priya's dad, Dr. Ranganath

From right to left Bharat(priya's brother), her dad Dr.Ranganath, her cousin Raghu