Why do an arangetram?

Posted by Irene (62.1.178.153) on December 04, 2006 at 01:17:49:

In Reply to: Arangetram? For what!? posted by Yoanna on November 15, 2006 at 20:38:16:

Hello all.
I am the organizing person at a dance school in Greece, offering various kinds of dances, among them bharatanatyam. And in a week's time we will host our first arangetram. This has been the cause of much thought and discussion, so let me share it with you.
Here in my country there is no tradition of Indian dance, very few Indians - and those are mainly poor workers - nobody knows that arangetrams should be lavish, and the girl is not rich. She is not a girl, actually but in her thirties, a skilled professional dancer and teacher in other forms of dance. Actually she currently teaches bharatanatyam to first year students, and is very good at it. She has studied bharatanatyam for seven years and is quite good, I think. She was postponing her arangetram for the past two years because she is a heavy smoker and got easily out of breath.
You know, when we said "OK, now enough is enough, you have to do it by the end of the year, and I set up a date", she started a more organized effort. She started rehearsing regularly, cut down on cigarettes a lot, became more focused etc etc... Now, this arangetram will be only for her friends and relatives, our students (well, this means 250 people, but not all will be interested to come), and it will be done to cassette music. Will there be refreshments for the intermission? Well, I suppose some fruit juices and a few snacks, possibly. We all thought she would feel more comfortable, less stressed-out if we kept it more intimate. And of course the teacher is getting NOTHING, no guru dakshina nor anything. She has been paid for the lessons in coaching her, so why should she take more. The love and devotion of her student, her student's success is more than enough.
It will be a cozy event, and hopefully full of love and positive energy from all of us towards her (she is very loved by everybody at her school, and her own students adore her), and even if she messes up something we won't mind at all, and applaud even more.
But, all this said, I firmly believe this test is useful and shouldn't be skipped. OK, she already performs and already teaches, but she should be able to prove that she can perform nine pieces one after the other, skillfully, and without forgetting, and without boring the audience. It is a test of fire, and keeps the student on her toes so to speak. It is a test for herself also, to see whether she can do it.
In old times, devadasis had to do it after puberty, because it was a signal that she had entered womanhood, that she was available. It was on the arangetram that a patron could see her and choose her (of course after the consent of the eldest female of her house, who made the choice among different patrons). This patron would have the benefit of taking her virginity and would pay for the expenses of the arangetram and possibly her expenses thereafter. So it was extremely needed. Nowadays this need is thankfully no longer there, but psychologically I think it is still very useful. The big halls and lavish things no, absolutely not, it's an absurd show, but I know that in India they think very much this way about marriages also, so I find it natural that this mentality would make its way into organizing other functions as well. It doesn't surprise me, although it saddens me.
A live orchestra is not an extra frivolousness, like changes of costumes, it's a wonderful thing,in any kind of dance, if one can afford it: there is nothing like a live orchestra. But if one cannot, one has to do without.