Warm get-together,………. Cherishing…….after Lockdown
March 2020 when the whole world was in grip of Corona Virus and people were locked inside their houses, We Layashala as student – teacher team we steped into completely new era of online kathak classical dance class. Our Guruji Mrs. Astha Karlekar had took initiative and started online classes. Learning classical dance is something which is on going process. Online classes for other curriculums are quite easy when it comes to classical dance it’s completely based on student’s motor skills and gestures. Observing them through video and correcting and teaching them through video was herculean task but our tai made it possible for us to stay in touch with dance which feels like mentioning here.
Following the Govt. rules and guidelines we all decided to have online classes. It was new for all of us. Even for our Guruji and even for us as students to get adopt with all together a new system. In lockdown dance was only thing which fed our asethetic senses during the difficult times. Now13/12/2020 we all layashala students were reunited again after long. It was joyous occasion for us.
Students ranging from four years to fifty years all remain present. Chinmay, Svaroopa, Gauri, Ishwari, Bagyashree, Sarika,Gargi, Aditya, Manoj, Shachi and our dear Poorva didi. Definitely, we were learning online and doing reyaz at our homes in lockdown. This was our first face to face class after 8 months. Coming together and practicing again with our old fellow buddies were moments worth cherishing. Our Tai was also present, practicing with her always opens opportunities for learning. These were smaller joys of life which become one of the milestone in our journey of 2020.
Our very senior students Aditya and Manoj suprisingly visited to class. They were sharing own experiences about daily life challegens related to professional and other family areas. While having conversation with young students they mentioned healing powers of Kathak and practicing on tabla beats.
It helped them to escape from routine noise to beautiful Rthym. They were also stressing upon importance of Riyaz in classical dance form. It was useful piece of advice from senior but friendly zone which leads to discussions about dance forms and it’s medicinal healing powers. As per them we all as human beings have aesthetic needs about colors, beats and rhymes which cater our senses. Kathak has that capacity to fulfill those higher needs of human being.
Of course, we followed social distancing and other govt. guidelines of covid but coming together and practicing always becomes special occasion. We are almost about to say good bye to this corona year and this practice was become one of the memorable event.