The show must go on...

My dance teacher and buddies now feel like an extended family. We share a common bond... the love for dance... for Kathak. Today, I learnt about an episode this weekend where one of the dancer's father passed away unexpectedly. She found out about it while she was in the green room few seconds before the start of the show. Her father suffered a silent heart attack while he was at home getting ready to see his daughter perform. The cops made a courtesy visit to drive the mother and daughter from the auditorium to their home. The other dancers and my teacher were helpless, they had to continue the show and pretend as if nothing happened. As performers, they owe it to their audience. While the dancers were balling their eyes out behind the curtains, they embraced their spirit as a professional dancer the moment they stepped on the stage.

It seems cruel to me, but I guess, the show must go on...

Wish her family recovers from this loss.

The math in dance

The past 20 or so years have seen a major technology boom, nothing short of a revolution. Just in the past 5 years, we’ve seen youtube, facebook, twitter… iphone, tablets, e-readers… ipods.. The snail mail is a thing of the past. The kids these days cannot imagine a life without internet, cellphone. 

With the technology getting smarter and smarter, there is a lot of talk in the science world whether this so called 'smart' technology is actually making us dumber. No need to remember phone numbers, calculate tips, memorize calendar appointments, etc. So much buzz about physical health... but what about mental health and brain activity!
The truth is - this parasytic reliance on technology is crippling us day after day. Not just us, our friends, siblings, spouses, kids – the youth around us. If we don’t take a steps to reverse this now, it will be too late and before we know it we will have robots rule us just like in the movie - Matrix.. Okay, okay it may not be that bad. I tend to be over-dramatic. 

I know we all hear this all the time... But, what are we doing about it?

Whenever possible, I spare no chance to stress the importance of math in our daily lives. Math triggers the process of thinking, applying logic and solving problems. Doing simple math problems, as simple as solving sudoku, every day can trigger a larger benefit for our overall brain activity helping our memory and sharpening those neuron connections. This past week, I saw a similar benefit in another activity.

At my last dance class this Sunday, I realized that my Kathak dance teacher was kicking it up a notch (..ummm.. several notches) by adding more complicated steps to our routine. There is a science in every dance form, especially classical dances. The basic Kathak footwork of 'Ta, thei, thei, Tat' can be combined in various permutations and combinations to make extremely intricate, yet elegant, dance moves. The act of remembering these combinations forces us to 'think', create logical connections... thereby improving mental agility and strength. Over time, we find it easier to adapt and learn the complicated moves since our brain has been trained and prepared to kick it up several notches!

Scientists once believed that mental ability was fixed after childhood. But over the last few decades, neuroscientists have discovered that adults' brains are constantly changing - growing new neurons and connections - in a process known as neuroplasticity. The more we train our brain, the better it is for our brain health. The older we get, the slower this process becomes. It is even more crucial to 'exercise' your brain as you get older. Learning dance is one of the ways. No wonder all dance instructors have such sharp memory!

Getting back to dance

I, like many others, have always had a secret dream to be a professional dancer. My guilty pleasures are watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' or youtubing (I nominate this to be a valid word in the dictionary) hours and hours of dance performances on songs I like. When I hear a song, I always... always imagine how I would dance to it. Is that normal?

For the past 3 years, I've been diligent about learning an Indian Classical Dance called Kathak. Dances that help you express through your body and allow a dancer to add his/her own personality have always fascinated me. Though I don't know much about them, but lyrical and contemporary dance forms are a delight to watch and learn form. I find the same fascination of endless possibilities of expression in Kathak. There are strict rules and forms you should stick to, but there is also room for each dancer to add their own characteristic flavour. You don't have to be pretty to make the dance look beautiful. Your personality, style and elegance make that dance piece memorable.
My Kathak classes happen every Sunday evening. It's become such a routine that my Sunday activities are all planned around the class. Missing the dance class in not option, else I am a grumpy kid for the rest of the week!

Hello world, :)

Just the way the first code written said "Hello world.", I say hello to the world with this new blog that I finally started after putting it off for several years.
If you really want to do something, you'll find a way to do it... or you'll find a hundred ways not to do it.
The push before the plunge
We all need a push to take that plunge into anything new. My final 'push' came today when I felt a state of uncharacteristic restlessness, something that I've been feeling for several months now. I was able to visualize and compare this state of mind to brownian motion. Ergo, the name of the blog!