Posted by Anamika on December 21, 2006 at 16:05:24:

 In Reply to: practicality.. posted by Megha on December 07, 2006 at 18:42:04:

 I totally agree with you Megha. I grew up in India and was trained by a living legend. I have danced professionally in India. But after coming here I have found it impossible to find a teacher who would fulfill the role of a "Guru". Throughout my stay here in the US I have tried to dance on my own without latching on to a big name. Of course as a student with extremely limited monetary resources that becomes harder and harder. One very senior dancer in the US saw me perform and asked me to join her troupe. I consulted with my guru back in India about the offer and she advised me to check out the offer. The senior dancer in the US demanded I pay her tuition just like veryone else did. I told her that as a student I could not afford the fees and would like to continue dancing alone as I was. She called me several times during that week offering to "pay" my tuition (to herself!). I agreed to dance with her troupe. But my experience with her has been very unsettling. Firstly, she and her daughter are dictators. They DO NOT welcome any ideas. They control the finances, the choreographies, the costumes....everything. No one else is allowed to give any ideas. And worst of all, they don't know how to treat people with respect. They treat senior artists from India with ridicule and disdain. They invite people to their group only to tell them that they cannot dance. A month with them and I was ready to quit. The unabashed promotion of the daughter was really irritating. In her troupe I could never be the heroine. Ever. It was obvious to the dancer her daughter and to every member of the audience that I was senior to the daughter in terms of experience and technique. But she would tell me how I should learn from her daughter to be a perfectionist! Of course you don't know me, so the joke is lost on you. But any one who has danced with me would laugh at this senior dancer for that. Anyways, the point is I wanted to grow more as a dancer and not start revelling in how much better than others my dance is (as a defense mechanism). If your teacher keeps telling you that you are no good, but you have heard from other, arguably greater, artists that you have the right insticts and the passion, then your immediate response to criticism is arrogance. She invited me only so she could prevent me from doing well on my own.
 

 
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