Spic Macay is an organization that attempts to show young people the rich cultural background of India. And today they succeeded in doing this.

Padamshree Kiran Sehgal

Padmashree award winner Kiran Sehgal was at our school today! She is an Odissi master. Along with her were 2 of her students, who seemed about my age, but had been learning the dance form for 11 years... amazing. She said that the basics of the dance take about 5 years. So I'm sure the students of hers must be masters of the basics too!

Welcome!

Mrs. Sehgal definitely knows how to make us interested in something as classical as Odissi. At first, I felt like I would be highly bored (just like in other Spic Macay programs!!!). But she kept us all so interested that we sat there without a fan!! Let me describe some of the details that I wrote on my hand while watching the program. From the next time I'll get a paper too...

The program started with the introduction of Mrs. Sehgal's students - Supriya Nair (in a green dress) and Aradhna Burman (in a yellow dress).

Supriya Nair and Anuradha Burman

After their introduction, they performed the Mangala Charan. It was basically composed of 3 things: first was offering flowers to the Earth, second, a pranam to the Earth, And then a Trikhand namaskar - first a namaskar to Gods and heavens, the second to their Guru, and the third to the audience. Mrs. Sehgal told us the various details about the dance we had just seen. She explained what each step meant. This was what I appreciated the most. We got to know what those alomst meaningless steps of classical dance meant.

And that is the reason I am able to describe the program in such detail.

Then she described the dresses they were wearing. Their dress was a silk saree. Their heads were adorned with something that Queen Amidala (of star wars) wears. The only difference was that the material was not intergalatic dust... it was a reed or some wood or flower. They wore silver jewellery and a big nice looking waist band. Mrs. Sehgal said that the inspiration for the waist band was a frog... yikes!!

Then the two students did a 1 minute dance to portray 4 instruments. I was able to identify 3. The first one was Veena - portrayed by holding a imaginery Veena in the hands. The second was a Murli, or a flute. This was quite clearly visible. The third one was a Mardala - a kind of Dholak (but not a Dholak. She strictly said it wasn't a dholak). The action for the Mardala looked so nice that you had to see to understand what I mean... the action was like this: Hold your hands towards each other, pointing towards the ground. Then with the tip of the middle finger of each hand as the fulcrum, rotate the hand. The action looked excellent! And the last instrument was a Manjira.

Guess who!

This was the first time I watched a classical dance and could actually make out what was being said!!!

Then we were showed the 3 basic postures of Odissi. The Chaukha, in which the performer fits inside an imaginery square. The second one was the Tribangh. In this, the posture was "broken up" at the neck, waist, and knees. The third one was the Atibangh. This was similar to the last one, but it was "more broken" at the knees.

Then she showed many basics actions that are commonly used in the dance, for example, various "flag positions" and a few positions in which a woman is adorning herself.

After this, she herself performed a scene in which Radha and Krishna meet while Radha was going to fetch water from Jamuna. Again, she explained what each step portrayed.

And finally, she called 10 boys up on stage and taught them some dance too!! Aseem too was on stage... he had to be!! He was (to a certain degree) able to do what her students were doing.

VSECians on stage

One thing that I remember clearly was doing the Chaukha mudra and sitting up and down in 16 counts, then 8 counts, and then in 4 counts.

And then she finally ended the program and answered a few question... that were most probably pre-prepared! She herself seemed in a hurry so quickly ended the program!

Conclusion: This was one of the best programs by Spic Macay. All of us actually watched the entire show and enjoyed it! She knew exactly how to let young people know about her artform.

I'll try to get the photographs from Mr. Goyal. I think I'll ask him tomorrow... I also hope to get the teachers day and dance competition photos.