Greetings from Aurangabad, a city approximately 5 hours north of Pune. Some people from my program have trekked here to see the famed Ajanta-Ellora caves; I'm actually really excited about it and will definitely post pictures as soon as we get back from our trip.
This post doesn't really have any set topic, but it's more just to document some of the things I've taken up or done since being here.
Along with my internship and contemporary India class, I've now enrolled in Kathak classes and Yoga classes. Kathak is a dance style from northern India that encompasses intricate footwork with story telling. At first, I was expecting it to be a lot similar to Bharatnatyam, a south Indian dance style that I'm more familiar with. I was SO wrong, haha. Kathak is very lucid; it incorporates consecutive spins, fluid hand movements and consistent foot tapping. B-nat, on the other hand, is a lot more stiff in the sense that the basic position used is a squat, more jumping is required, and hand movements are jerky. While learning Kathak the first day, I actually found myself resisting the urge to use Bharatnatyam hand positions :P It's a lot of fun though, and a really interesting way to understand regional differences in culture within India.
As mentioned before, I've also picked up Yoga. This is something I've always wanted to give a try but never found the time to until now. I've only been to one session so far, but can definitely see why everyone is so crazy about it. After we had finished, I could feel that my body wasn't as tense as it normally is, which was awesome. I definitely do have to work on my flexibility, though, but hopefully this will improve with time :)
This post doesn't really have any set topic, but it's more just to document some of the things I've taken up or done since being here.
Along with my internship and contemporary India class, I've now enrolled in Kathak classes and Yoga classes. Kathak is a dance style from northern India that encompasses intricate footwork with story telling. At first, I was expecting it to be a lot similar to Bharatnatyam, a south Indian dance style that I'm more familiar with. I was SO wrong, haha. Kathak is very lucid; it incorporates consecutive spins, fluid hand movements and consistent foot tapping. B-nat, on the other hand, is a lot more stiff in the sense that the basic position used is a squat, more jumping is required, and hand movements are jerky. While learning Kathak the first day, I actually found myself resisting the urge to use Bharatnatyam hand positions :P It's a lot of fun though, and a really interesting way to understand regional differences in culture within India.
As mentioned before, I've also picked up Yoga. This is something I've always wanted to give a try but never found the time to until now. I've only been to one session so far, but can definitely see why everyone is so crazy about it. After we had finished, I could feel that my body wasn't as tense as it normally is, which was awesome. I definitely do have to work on my flexibility, though, but hopefully this will improve with time :)
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