cURIOSITY TO LEARN!
“Have you ever learnt Dance Sonal ?”, I asked my friend after hearing Emory SaRaas practicing at the WoodPec gym .
“ Well, I learnt Ballet for two weeks in Hong Kong if that counts. But honestly I’ve never been taught any dance form as such”, she replies trying to make a bun from her hair. “But, I ‘ve always wanted to learn Hip-Hop” “ HIP-HOP?” I replied with a little high-pitched tone. “Yeah hip-hop. I’ve lived 10 years in Hong-Kong and the most popular dance was hip-hop and b-boying”. “Haha that’s interesting! Where else have you lived? “ “I was born in India, but I stayed there for only four years, I then moved to Malaysia where I stayed for five and a half years and then Hongkong for 10 years.” “ Aah. I like how you lived in the popular places of South Asia. Do you think the necessity or eagerness to learn dance developed in any of these countries?” “It depends on what kind of woman one wants to be. Some of them stereotype women to grace and classical forms of dance. But even though I wanted to learn Hip-hop, I didn’t really push myself to learn any one of them. So, I really don’t think we as women need to learn just dance you know? “ “Yeah, definitely. Your argument appeals to the contemporary women in todays world. But at the same time, a part of me wanted to pursue dance” |
“ I agree. What other aspects of culture-oriented dance have you observed?”
“ Dance reflects culture, especially Indian forms. They connect to the divine and tell us stories from our rich culture.” “ Radhika, frankly speaking, even though I’ve lived in different countries and learnt many things, met different people; At Emory, I’ve made the most indian friends” “Really? I understand it’s a diverse population but your perspective is quite different.” “Yeah! I mean looking at the number of Indian Dance teams here at Emory, as a freshman in college I notice my desire to learn a dance form” “There you go! That’s how I feel every minute. But to me, it was a slightly different story .” “ Each time Emory Karma or Satraangi performs, I reget not learning any dance form all of a sudden. There was this time I called my mom and asked her why she didn’t enroll me into any of these dance forms back in Hong-Kong.” “Then I realize the resources one is exposed to matters a lot. Emory has it but back in Hong-Kong we didn’t” |
Sonal Mathur
Jovial and crazy Sonal is an Indian by origin who lived in Hong-Kong and Malaysia. She describes her developed curiosity to learn a dance form after being exposed to different dance forms at Emory . |