October 18- Dussehra Festival

While at home for the weekend of October 17, I attended a festival at my temple called Dussehra. I thought I'd share a little bit about it with you all since we are reading the Ramayana in class. Dussehra, also known as Vija Dashami, is a festival to commemorate Ram's triumph over Ravana. Dussehra also marks the end of Navratri, which is a festival of "nine nights" that Hindus spend worshiping the nine forms of the goddess Durga Mata. Some Hindus fast and pray for health and prosperity.

The Dussehra festival I attended was a lot of fun. There were stalls with vendors selling clothing and food, and dance performances ranging from folk and Bollywood to classical by young children (see picture above). To mark the end of the celebration, everyone went outside to watch Ravana being burned. Temple devotees built a large Ravana with sticks and foil, and then set fire to it.

"Ha ha ha" - oct. 13

Last week, class was very entertaining. The ball activity was fun and definitely made me feel more comfortable acting differently. It was very difficult for me to get into that form, but after Guru Francis turned off the lights, it became a lot easier for me because I was no longer as conscious of myself. I think I ran into a few people (sorry!) so I had to put out my hands in order to make sure I wasn't near anyone. I think I was one of the few people in the middle, because I felt like not very many people were near me when we had to start the "ha ha ha" exercise. The laughing exercise was relaxing and different from anything I had ever done before. Talking as a banjar afterwards clarified how the exercise made us more comfortable as a unit. Overall, I enjoyed class today.

October 1

Wednesday's class, I felt, was very productive in terms of learning Bharatanatyam. I really like having both Kalyani and Ravali teach this part because they both bring their individual styles to the dance. I also liked breaking up into two groups; we were able to receive individual attention and improve. Guru Francis's favorite jati is also my favorite. I'm excited to learn more of the combinations. I think learning the combinations helps me remember the individual steps. I'm definitely a fan of the head movements too; when I was younger, my older sister and I would always do those head movements after watching classical performances at culture shows (just because it was fun), and now I actually get to use them :)

Banjar

In class today, I felt very comfortable discussing our goals and our perspectives of the course thus far. I thought being outside was a positive change in environment and the dancing felt more contextualized. I am enjoying learning Bharatanatyam because it seems like a very disciplined dance that can be employed as a communication mechanism.

On a different note, after reading about the social system of Bali and Banjar, it seems like there are parallels between the Balinese system and our class; each individual in our class, as we learned today, has a goal he or she strives to achieve, but there is also a feeling of community, empowering each student to strive to reach a common goal and allowing us as students to be comfortable with one another.

I’m looking forward to next class to learn more Bharatanatyam and am interested to learn more about the Balinese system.