Hey there ladies,
Thought I would share a little bit about my fist Bollywood style class...
Uhm - FUN!! funfunfun!
The instructor is from India - born and raised, and she was very kind and patient with the 4 of us in the class.
One of which was a Man - Very Cool I thought!
and only 1 of the other ladies was of Indian decent.
(the other was asian) so we had a very eclectic mix, which made it more interesting.
First we intro'd each other and described what brought us to class. I said that Indian movements are becoming popular in fusion BD, and that I was thrilled to find an instructor, as many in this are will ONLY teach those of Indian decent. She said, "Thats absurd to me, Im happy to have all of you here - everyone can learn this dance!"
Then we listened to a few songs to get a feel for what tempo we wanted to learn with...we chose a moderate to fast tempo song... I have no recolection of the name of the song..
Anyways, She showed us a few of the Mudras - hand gestures- that are popular in the style also a little bit of the foot and body movements...and without further adoo - RIGHT INTO the choreography!
I liked the fact that we wasted no time, but I felt a little cheated, not starting from square one.
The choreo was neat, the steps took a bit to get used to (and can definitely use some refining at this point) so I was glad to have a BD background and have a vague familiarity.
At the end of the class - the instructor said that she would love to have me in her Bharatnhatyam class ...She invited me to sit in on it! She and 2 of her students were working on a choreo for an Ethnic Festival. It was lovely and I think in due time I'll go for that as well.
I thanked her and said, I think that I'll try one - then the other and see how they work out with my schedule.
I am really looking forward to next week's class!
~J