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I performed the 108 karanas just before I had to leave
for France in 2001. Padma Subrahmanyam had taught me the 108 karanas and
she wanted me to perform them in Chennai. So she organised a
performance at Bharat Kalachar. I was leaving on the 2nd of May and she
organised it for me on the 1st of May, the day before I was leaving. It
was 42 degrees, the height of summer, and the performance was in an
open-air auditorium. And that day I really thought I was going to die.
And she saw that. She realised it because she was in the audience and
she saw. Because no one had performed the 108 karanas before! At a
certain point during the performance, I heard a voice from the wings
calling: "Dominique, come!" So during a karana I walked out to the
wings, and she put a towel on my face and poured a bottle of glucose
water in my mouth and said, "Go!" and I finished the karanas. I danced
them continuously. It takes 45 minutes but it's like doing 3 varnams in
one go because you have no sahitya, it's only nritta. And afterwards her
brother told her, "Padma you should never do something like that. We
don't know what it's like to perform all the karanas!" So they told me
that if I ever do it in France, I should split it in two or three parts,
and not do it in one go. Plus it was 42 degrees! It was mad.
- Dominique Delorme
('The last disciple: An interview with Dominique Delorme' by Isabel Putinja, Sacred Space blog, March 24, 2011)
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