The course with Mrs. Sarasi Thiagarajan was a resounding success. She was an excellent teacher, motherly enough that the girls felt at ease with her and strict enough that they knew they had better do as told! Basics are so important in Bharata Natyam and she drilled the basics into them, how to sit araimadi, how to get the eyes to follow the raised hand, how to keep step with the sound of her cymbals... She knew her job and the girls progressed fast. By the end of the course, they had learnt a lot.
Very soon after she left, the group were told by the organizers of Canada Day events that they could dance at Assiniboine Park as part of the Canada Day celebrations!
We had taped a one-hour show on VPW Channel 13 and the first half hour was shown on June 6 at 8:30 p.m.
On June 1, I sent out a Newsletter to all participants. I told them that Nimisha had agreed to lead the practice sessions on Saturdays at her house in Charleswood from 9:30 to 10:30, and that the first three sessions would be on June 10, June 17 and June 30 (or July 1) and that they would practise to present Vara Veena and Alarippu as a group for Canada Day.
Meanwhile, costumes had to be made, and we were very lucky. Tulsi Sarkar was a doctor (Family Practice) and she had a patient who was a seamstress.
We had Nimisha's costume (and also Ganga's) as model, and we bought yards of satin and trims, in various colours. With these, she sewed exact copies of Ganga's old costume! Ten costumes in record time! complete with front pleats and blouses and any number of buttons and snaps!
It was fantastic!
I have photographs of the dances that sunny evening at Assiniboine Park. A close look would show many shortcomings in the coordination of hand gestures and symmetry of the formation, but heh, what were all those details when the fact was that these girls, half of whom were born in Winnipeg, were in costume and dancing away in front of a large audience, many of whom were seeing Bharata Natyam dance for the first time in their lives.
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