a moment to breathe

Whew. Tired. Just had a rigorous Bharatanatyam class with Toronto's Hari Krishnan. Je suis pooped. I ravenously devoured my lunch in record time and by 1:30 our contemporary classes with UK's Mark Baldwin begin. To recap a bit of the past few days:

Thursday, Friday: abhinaya (expressive dance) and technique classes in Bharatanatyam with excellent product of Kalakshetra taskmaster Stella Uppal Subbiah (I am also a product of the same lineage), followed by a sharing event on Thursday evening and an inspiring visit from two members of the UK Bharatanatyam dance company Angika.

Friday night: clubbing out in Birmingham, where it seems like 98% of the club population is Indian. There is nothing more fun than getting down on the dance floor with a posse of dance girls (and boys) you've spent all day with dancing classical and contemporary styles.

Saturday: One of the guys gave a Kathak workshop in the morning, which was quite different and fun. This was followed by lunch, a walking tour of central Birmingham and shopping. Some of the gang decided to go out again that night, and some of us stayed in and watched TV.

Sunday: received a much-needed massage from a sports massotherapist that someone had called in. Some of the troupe journeyed out to visit Stratford, and some of us (i.e. me) fell asleep nearer to the end of watching the latest Harry Potter movie. I woke up to spar outside on the grass with Skinder, one of the coordinators of Sampad. It was a fair match, though there seem to be more pictures of him getting beat up than the other way around. :) Lata Pada of Sampradaya dance school arrived from Toronto in mid-sparring session. In the evening, Hari Krishnan arrived in town and we ventured out to grab some cheap Indian-Chinese-Thai buffet food, and yes, it was all in the same buffet. After watching a compilation of some cheesy highlights of cheesy bollowood musical moments, I fell blissfuly into bed until I was rudely woken up by my alarm this morning.

That is all for now folks, I have to sprint off to class yet again!