Dancing Toward Each Other
By Renuka Garg
The cold grey tile floor was half the reason I went to bharatanatyam class on hot summer Thursday nights. Getting to class when I was already sweaty and tired was a slog, but I made it worthwhile by rolling around on the floor as much as possible for some reprieve from the summer heat. We technically weren’t supposed to sit or lay down unless our teacher explicitly allowed us to, so I was always testing the boundaries with my “stretching.” In fact, a lot of my experiences in bharatanatyam were about boundaries – being taught the “correct” line between softness and steadiness, between moving too much and not moving enough, between expressing myself and professing devotion.
Most of the time, I was squeezing in to fit those boundaries. But bharatanatyam also helped me feel freer than any other part of my life. I felt invincible when I nailed a fast jathi (hand + footwork sequence) or soared through my plavana (forward leap). I loved moving a story through my body, that satisfying exhaustion from knowing I’ve given everything in me to a performance. While the tile floor was a helpful incentive, I also always loved going to bharatanatyam class as a kid because I got to dance with my friends. I started learning bharatanatyam when I was 4 years old, and moved through almost 10 years of lessons with the same group of 7 other girls. The years of giggling through class, celebrating each other’s birthdays, and syncing our rhythms together meant that bharatanatyam was not just dance. It was community.
Bharatanatyam simultaneously made me feel my most seen and most scrutinized. Yet what has always brought me back is the connection. I feel so drawn to share bharatanatyam because it offers incredible tools for storytelling that can connect people across time, space, and language. But beyond just the dance itself, there is something so potent about getting to grow in this kind of vulnerable, creative process alongside others. I dream of a bharatanatyam community where we matter as much as the stories we are telling. I can’t wait to start building that at The Banyan Tree this summer through our dance camp, Banyan Natyam. I am so excited to witness all the beautiful connections that will emerge through camp, whether through the stories we embody or the ones we create with each other.
