Sisters Embark on a Bharatanatyam Journey

Sravya and Sharanya are two sisters who have been dancing Bharatanatyam since 2013 and 2016, respectively. Inspired by their parents, Mahesh and Sandhya Dutta, they fell in love with the art form and its divine devotional stories. Their Arangetram, a graduation and debut performance, took place at Stafford Civic Center, Stafford TX, United States recently. They performed many Hindu mythological stories, including the Ramayana, Ardhanareeshwara, Dasavatara, Gajendra Moksham, Mahabharatha, and more. They are grateful to their Guru, Divyaa Unni, for her guidance and support. Despite facing challenges such as building stamina and enhancing their expressions, they persevered and had a successful performance.

Interview experts:

Can you tell us about your journey in Bharatanatyam and what inspired you to pursue this classical dance form?

Sravya started her dance journey in 2013, and Sharanya began dancing in 2016. It was an effort by our parents, Mahesh and Sandhya Dutta, to engage us in an activity that would bring discipline and focus and connect to our Indian roots as we have grown up abroad. Over time, watching performances and eventually performing at local events ourselves, we fell in love with the beautiful art form and divine devotional stories.

What does your Arangetram performance mean to you personally?

In recent times, an Arangetram has been seen as a graduation and finale in a dancer’s journey. However, originally, an Arangetram means to “ascend the stage” and showcase your skills in a debut performance. For us, our Arangetram, although recognizing our achievements and hard work for years in dance, is only the beginning of a lifetime filled with dance. We hope to continue learning and performing dance as there is no end to learning or arts.

How long have you been training for your Arangetram performance, and can you share some insights into the rigorous training process?

We began discussing our Arangetram in July 2022 and began preparing and learning the dances later that year. For about eight months, we have attended weekly classes that got more rigorous as we got closer to the date. Starting with hour-long classes to learn the dance, we soon increased our learning and practice time to two, three, and then several hours a day during the last month and live rehearsals time. Our training process consisted of private lessons with Guru Divyaa Unni where she would choreograph, mentor, and advise us on our dance. Then, the last week before the Arangetram consisted of practice with the musicians, Mohankumar, Krishnakumar Paratt, and Mukund Josyula.

Could you describe the theme or concept of your performance, and why did you choose it?

In our Arangetram, we performed many Hindu mythological stories, including the Ramayana, Ardhanareeshwara, Dasavatara, Gajendra Moksham, Mahabharatha, and more. We portrayed numerous characters like Maa Kaali, Lord Narasimha, Rama and Sita, Shiva and Parvati, Krishna and Yashoda, and Draupadi and the Kauravas. The purpose of choosing these items was to convey our salutations and seek blessings from the Gods and to also diversify our skill of story-telling and expressions through dance. It was challenging to cover the “Navarasas” or nine emotions through the numerous stories and characters, but we enjoyed increasing our range of acting in dance through the portrayal of each unique character.

Can you explain the significance of the Guru-Shishya (teacher-student) relationship in Bharatanatyam and how your Guru has influenced your dance journey?

Coming to the ringmaster of the show, the SS Rajamouli of our Bharathanatyam Naatu Naatu, the best Guru one could ever ask for, Guru Divyaa Unni, or Divyaa Aunty as we call her. We are eternally grateful to her for transforming us into the dancers and people we are today. She is an incredible Guru, teaching us how to appreciate the art form and love it with all our hearts. First of all, she is a phenomenal dancer, artist, actress, and performer, so getting to learn from such an incredibly talented person has been the biggest blessing. Divyaa Aunty has been so accommodating during this journey, working hard to fit in our many ideas and requests into the dances. Watching her create unique choreographies in mere minutes is just fascinating and magical to see. Divyaa Aunty’s teaching style is to teach us the choreographies, stories, and movements and to then allow us creative freedom to explore the dance and character because each dancer has their own unique style. Our arangetram classes every day were filled with lots of conversations and laughter as we would discuss dance, expression, and lots of other stories.

No matter how tired we were each day, seeing Divyaa Aunty’s smile as soon as we walked in gave us all the energy we needed. Sometimes even complaining to her about a stressful situation or a long day at school, she always responds with an optimistic approach to any situation. And what motivates us the most is that Divyaa Aunty believes in us more than we do ourselves, she gives us a confidence boost like no one else, assuring us that we can do anything and everything.

How have you balanced your academic or professional commitments with the intense preparation required for your Arangetram?

As the Arangetram preparation took place during the academic school year, it was difficult to manage our school work with our practice schedule. We would have classes on the weekends, and they got more rigorous during the holidays and summer break. During the school year though, we would usually wake up early to run or jog for thirty minutes and practice dance before going to school each day and again in the evenings after school.

Can you share any challenges or obstacles you’ve faced during your preparation for the Arangetram, and how did you overcome them?

We had to face many challenges during the preparation for our Arangetram, including building stamina, maintaining coordination, and enhancing our expressions for role-playing. Stamina was a huge problem for us in the initial stages of our Arangetram, as it is for every dancer pre-Arangetram. It was not easy to increase our stamina from getting tired after completing only half a dance to having enough energy to complete nine dance items back-to-back. At times, we would get frustrated with our dad and jokingly call him “Hanikarak Bapu” as he forced us to run every day, cut down on sugars, cookies, and ice cream, and adopt an overall healthier lifestyle. But, the exercise and healthy diet that our parents and brother, Keshav, insisted we adopt was what came to the rescue when our energy levels were low during dance practice, and it helped us build the stamina to do it all on the day of. For coordination, we used to record each practice session and watch the videos during our break/relaxation time; this way, we could assess ourselves and make sure that our hands, foot movements, and even eye movements were coordinated as best as we could.

What are the emotions and feelings you anticipate experiencing on the day of your Arangetram performance?

On the day of our performance, we were very excited, but as show time got closer, the pressure was building up, and we were extremely nervous. But, all the jitters vanished the moment we got on stage and the lights were on. Because of the bright, blinding lights, we could not see much of the audience, and so we were in our own world with the song, beats, and dance! Overall, it was one of the best days of our lives.

In Bharatanatyam, storytelling and expression are vital. How do you work on emoting and connecting with the audience through your dance?

It was a challenge to play so many different characters with different body languages and emotions, but our Guru Divyaa Unni’s narration helped us fight half the battle as we could clearly visualise the Hindu mythological stories we were acting out. To enhance our expressions even more, we would pose in front of the mirror for hours and even watch old Telugu movies to learn from Sr. NTR Garu and SV Ranga Rao Garu’s body language as they played mythological and demonic characters. Specifically, we used to watch scenes from Bhakta Prahalada, Krishna Pandaveeyam, and other Telugu movies to understand the characters of Narasimha, Hiranyakshpu, Prahalada, Draupadi, Duryodhana, Krishna, Rama, Sita, Shiva, Parvati, etc. before we played the characters in our dances depicting the Dasavataram, Sita’s Syamvaram, Narasimham, Draupadi Vastraharan, and the Ramayana.