In Reply to: See your own show posted by Jeena on February 15, 2006 at 13:37:31:

 1. Alarmel Valli, Urmila Satyanarayanan, and all the other greats today are in a league of their own. These two were among those I have seen and admired in the U.S.. However, the Indian dance scene isn't glittered with little AV's, PG's, US's, and MS's. I referred to Indian dancers as a whole, and quite explicitly at that. There are many "senior dancers"--- I was not referring to the extreme. I do not see how you managed to think this since I specifically stated I went to Chennai in January to see the local talent. Senior dancers (and all that means is that they have much experience in the field) perform during this time too... all of the very famous dancers finished their programs in December; they do not perform in the January dance festivals in Chennai, at least from the schedules I have seen.

2. No, I did not literally check out ALL the local talent, but I saw a great deal. I chose performances to attend based on a combination of past reviews, reputation of Guru and/or my feelings on the Guru's other students, and comments from others about the dancer (word-of-mouth, you could say). I sampled performances from many different gurus and many different styles/schools of Bharata Natyam. I did as much research in choosing the performances as one can do when one knows little or nothing about each and every young performer. This was not a random selection of performances to attend... they were all informed decisions. I realize I may have missed many good performances, and therefore...

3. I made it quite clear that I refuse to generalize about Indian dancers the way a previous posted generalized about American dancers. I know there is obviously much great young talent in India (and I DID witness some of that in the performances I went to), but it is wrong to say that there is not in America. We have less, but we are not void of it. Furthermore, I will not point out which dancers I found disappointing and which dancers in the U.S. could compare. I simply have no right to publicly name names.

4 (to Jeena). I never compared the dance of Indian performers to my own dance. This was clearly not the purpose of my post. I was addressing the EXPECTATIONS I had (which were formed by repeated praise of Indian dancers by older dancers in the U.S.) and comparing the performances to these expectations... by no means to myself! I am fully aware of my own flaws. This was an example of going to India to see "real Bharata Natyam" as someone so bluntly stated earlier. Unfortunately, I did not see the staunch contrast I was expecting.

All your questions/comments are the results of not fully understanding what I have written and failing to recognize my point. I was responding to the accusation that the U.S. contains fat, lazy dancers who are inevitably inferior to Indian dancers and are so influenced by American culture that we cannot nor will we ever be able to comprehend or perform Bharata Natyam like our Indian counterparts. How can someone be so closed-minded? I used my experiences in Chennai to point out that we in the U.S. are not light years behind the Indian dance scene as some may suggest. I was not undermining the quality of dance in India. While there is much high caliber dance in India, much of the dance scene is also overly touted out. Putting things in perspective, American dancers are progressing and more and more are proving to live up to their counterparts in India. You may argue this indefinitely, but understand that as an American dancer, such comments compel me to respond strongly and candidly.
 

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