dec 24:a dance-filled evening!

I'm neither a dancer nor a dance buff,yet my mom insisted  i accompany her to a dance programme,in which my younger sister was to participate.my younger sister ,always a dancer right from childhood,was always encouraged by her parents to hone her dancing skills making her join dance classes,to learn bharatnatyam. being a south-indian myself,my mom never let me learn bharatnatyam.i dont regret not learning it,but
as most of south indian girls learn this form,irrespective of their interest in it,some of them make it their career later,i too felt i should have had a knowledge about it.nevertheless,i enjoy watching dance,so i relented.
       the programme was to be conducted in a temple.as soon as i entered the premises,all i could see was excited faces of all the participating children and the most happiest were their parents.their zest and enthusiasm was admirable,the proud parents bringing their children all decked up.a huge crowd of all their
parents,relatives had gathered,the premises being small to accomodate so many of them.but nobody seemed to mind,the thought of seeing your child perform in front of such a huge audience made them forget all that.we squeezed ouselves into a small space,just enough to view half of the stage.i watched some of the people seated comfortably on chairs,(a bit envious of them).i was upset,couldn't they even arrange for some place to sit and watch the dance peacefully?while i was wondering at how others didn't seem to mind about this problem,i could notice there was chaos backstage as well,among the teacher and the students,
im sure they didnt anticipate such a huge crowd to show up in such a small temple.amongst all this hullabaloo,the show commenced.
         the 1st dance was presented by a group of  children.i was surprised to see those small children,i guess they must be aged barely 5-6yrs.all of them were looking so sweet in their outfit ,the standard 9yard ,worn in that typical form.i wasnt expecting them to dance those complicated mudras that i have seen,but wen they danced,i was flabbergasted!!so beautifully and effortlessly they executed their moves,with so much grace,with apt facial expressions(facial expressions being the prominent feature of bharatnatyam).that was followed by  a dance by the seniors.they too danced well,their dance clearly showing their years of experience in dance.watching as a layman,anyone would clearly understand the stories of the great gods that their dance represented.the music so soothing,the synchronized movements of all the dancers,on the beat,their salangais or ankle bells(the rhythm produced by those ankle bells was enough,i felt the background song wasnt required!)but still i felt they were no match for their juniors,the juniors clearly were stealing the show!
all parents were pointing out their children in the dance,cheering for their children.whether it was a single song or many songs,it was more than enough for them to see their children perform.Wat a moment of pride it was!some of the parents already dreaming of their children becoming great dancers!
 i,too,felt proud seeing my sister perform.it made me nostalgic,as a child, she would say she would grow up to become a dancer,and nw,here she was!taking her big steps towards her dream!
i returned home ,very much impressed.the programme had not only won the students and the teacher lot of accolades from the audience, but had also gained a fan of this great dance form!