Dance hair for extremely short hair - Part III

Welcome to Part III of "Dance hair for extremely short hair" Don't forget to check out Part I and II !

This style is typical of Kathak, it's a little over the top because of the fact that it's done with extremely short hair but if short is what you're working with then this is a possibility but to make it secure enough for dance you'd need a lot more pins than I used. The basic idea of this style is extremely simple, it's just a low bun with flowers around it.

I started by tying the cord of the fake hair at the top of the head, this is where an awful lot of pins would be needed, or even perhaps clip-in hair extensions.

I left the fringe out of the cord so that I could fold it back over to cover the cord. Again black clips here would have been better. 

So this is then what you're left to work with. Pins and gel are the only ways to do something with all the short hair. 

I then used a doughnut to create a bun with the fake hair. I used the rolling down method which can be seen here How to do a simple hair doughnut. Then I added a hair net. The hair net was actually smaller than the bun but bun pins solved that issue ;) A hair net isn't essential but I think it looks neater, the first of the pictures above is with the net, the second without. The short hair on the rest of the head can of course be neatened with gel or hair spray. 

Here is the final product with flowers wrapped around the bun. Pretty simple really! 

Part IV coming up!

Dance hair for extremely short hair - Part II

Welcome to part II of "Dance hair for extremely short hair" Don't forget to check out Part I

This next style is again more traditionally seen used for Bharatanartam but if toned down slightly, with a lower bun, it can also be used for Kathak. It essentially comprises of a bun with a long plait beneath.

As you can see I started again with our trusty old tuft. 

I then added the fake hair which again can be seen on my Southall Haul post. I tied it tightly around the tuft.

I then started to plait the fake hair, I attempted to french plait in some of the actual hair but as you can see it really was too short. I tied a scrunchie in the plait above to show where I added the Paranda. 

At this point the Paranda has been plaited in, I measured it so that the Paranda ended where the fake hair ended. I continued to add more pins to sort out fly away tufts of hair, which would have been more easily tamed with gel. You can also see how the cord from the top of the fake hair is tied back down the plait to secure it. 

And so here is the finished product! I added two lots of flowers around the bun, and then a separate length of flowers twisting down the plait. 

This style is of course best done on long hair, and I shall demonstrate it on long hair in another post. 

Part III coming up!

Dance hair for extremely short hair - Part I

Bonsoir!!

Traditionally the Indian/South Asian view of a beautiful woman is one with long hair, hence a large majority of South Asian girls have long hair, especially Indian classical dancers, but what about all those non-Indian Indian classical dancers who have short hair? Like reeeealllyyy short hair... Well this is the first in a series of 4 blog posts to give you the answer!

A good friend of mine agreed to be my guinea pig this time, so we'll dive right in with the first hairstyle. If you remember my post from a while ago entitled Doughnuts and Brooches you'll notice that this is a variation of the same style. It's typically for Bharatanatyam but could equally be used for semi-classical pieces or classical based dances such as Gaudiya Nritya. The basic idea is two buns, one essentially on top of the other. I think the two buns should be quite close together, although as you'll see this is not always possible with hair as short as this. I also feel it is important for Bharatanatyam that any high bun should have its flowers visible from the front.

This is the length of hair I was working with...

and this is how I did the style, as step-by-step as I could manage...

So I started by creating a ponytail, well more of a tuft, from the longer half of the hair. I just used a regular hair band. Obviously it is best to use one that matches the colour of the hair but it isn't essential. I also used some clips to neaten up the front but I didn't have any black ones so they do stand out, but obviously black ones wouldn't be seen on a stage.

I then used a small hair doughnut and a thicker almost scrunchie-like hair band to secure it, as well as bun pins. As you can see the tuft doesn't quite cover the doughnut hence I implore you, when doing dance hair for hair that is this short, USE HAIR GEL. 

Then as you can see I gathered the remaining hair into the smallest ponytail known to man, aka a stump. Securing again with clips and pins that should have been black. The stump gives you something to work with and if I had used gel this would all have been so much easier. 

This is the final product and all I've done is add flowers with lots of bun pins. The white flowers are the same ones I used in my other previous hair posts and the red ones can be seen on my Southall Haul post. 

This style isn't actually hard to achieve, it's only hard when the hair your working with is as incredibly short as this hair is and if, like I was, you are doing this without water, gel or hair spray!

I shall remind you again that doing hair for any Indian classical dance is not for the faint-hearted, you will need an endless supply of hair spray and an endless supply of 50 different types of hair pins... but it's all worth it in the end!

Stay tuned for part II !

The Weekly Grind: Kathak

Afternoon all!
I had to leave Kathak class early today and so I went for the last half of the beginners' class before mine. It was actually quite humbling in many ways. They're all such budding, enthusiastic, little students and the concentration in their faces is fantastic! They were doing some footwork that somewhere, a long long time ago in my Kathak story I have also learnt, but had long-since forgotten, so I found myself following the little kids and trying to latch on to whatever they were doing!

Today we were told that a 45 minute footwork warm up is essential, such a warm up could include two ladi's and a laybandh. Quite a good warm up actually but naturally it almost killed me today. My stamina in terms of footwork is absolutely atrocious so I may very well have to put this warm up sequence into practice!

We then went on to learn a new tukra. Despite my Guru's description of her nightmares of this tukra as a student, I quite like it. There are these four really fast spins (well, there are supposed to be 4... ;) ) that just add this amazing wow factor to the end, and the movements are really quite complex in many ways I think but then you put it together and do it properly it looks absolutely stunning.

A little thought I had today about my Kathak class is how great it is that we can all laugh together :) I think that Kathak is often a very serious dance, as in we are all very spiritual as Kathak dancers, often deep in thought and of course deep in concentration on the movements but it's great to be able to laugh. I think it gives such a great atmosphere to the class, today had us envisaging a drunk man falling backwards off of a table and a car rolling downhill with a Kathak dancer behind the wheel!

Oh and just a quick note, I actually cut my thumb on my ghungroo this morning, leaving a trail of red on them. So it really is blood, sweat and tears that goes into dance ;)

Until next time,
Happy Dancing!

School's out pour l'été! (The Weekly Grind: BN)

Hello! Yes I am still alive!
So it's been ages since I last posted, and I have to say I have absolutely no excuse for that, whoops! Today I bring you an unbelievably late Weekly Grind: Bharatanatyam.

A few weeks ago (not-so-weekly grind it would seem...) my Bharatanatyam class broke up for the Summer, which is always a bit daunting I feel because it often means around 6 weeks without regular classes, argh! We went through the Mallari mainly because my Guru doesn't want us to forget it over the summer, and I have to announce to you all that me and the Mallari are no longer friends :( Having done it about three times in a row in that last lesson, it killed me :( I have an awful lot of work to do before it's perfect! We also started a Keertanam, oh Lord, I have no idea how I'll remember that come the first class back!

So let's have a look back at my Bharatanatyam story so far. I started Bharatanatyam in Autumn 2011 some time. It was something I'd wanted to do for years and so it was really a bit like a dream come true. Then in March 2013 (I think) I took my Grade 1 Bharatanatyam exam with ISTD and passed with a distinction! Wooo! Then we get to now, almost two years down the line, about six dance items, an exam and a permanent place in my heart and life for Bharatanatyam.

I shall soon be leaving my weekly Bharatanatyam class in a small rented room, hidden by a huge community centre and down a set of concrete steps, to continue my training elsewhere. It has to be said that these classes have taught me so much, not only adavus but also aspects of myself. Bharatanatyam after all is so very much more than simply a dance form. It is a philosophy, an art, a way of life, it is a way of discovering a whole new level of ourselves.

I shall apologise now if this entry isn't up to scratch, but hey, I'm tired! ;)

Happy Dancing!

The Weekly Grind: Kathak

Evening all!

It's been a while since I wrote a Kathak entry so here goes.

Today's class was a mix of many things: tatkaar, laybandh, amad to name a few. I'd like to share some of my thoughts on Kathak and my progress in this entry. I think that as much as Kathak is a dance tradition with rules and regulations (don't think I can't see the whites of your eyes!) it also requires the dancer to be a free spirit, more so than Bharatanatyam in my opinion. Kathak is a dance that is so intertwined with the way our body moves naturally that sometimes I think you have to forget what is right or wrong and let your body move. My Guru today made us all laugh by telling us that we were all concentrating so hard on doing our spins that we looked like we were going to through daggers at someone each time! This is what I mean, as Kathak dancers we are required to be uniform, stick to the rules, regulated but a spin is also an expression of joy, a sense of loosing your whole self in the momentum of this little cylinder of motion that you create around yourself.

I feel I've become a little quieter in class these days, which has led to my classmates wondering if something is up, actually if I'm honest with myself I think it's because I am slowly learning a much deeper appreciation for the art then I have felt before. There is a difference between love and appreciation, I loved Kathak from the first class, just me and my Guru and my Mum for support, it was my Guru's first class in the area and no-one else showed up. Appreciation however seems to be developing now, after five years of training. It is a sense, I believe, of accepting every aspect of Kathak as a part of myself. Not just the beauty and perfection of it but also the sweat and tears and utter despair at times. Because an art after all encompasses all of that.

Sweat, tears and utter despair are conquered by one thing; motivation. As an artist I think a lot of people expect me to have total devotion and motivation for dance at all times, but in actual fact I am only human and my motivation is somewhat lacking at times. It isn't easy to repeat a single movement ten or twenty times and still not get it perfect and sometimes it does knock you off your broom so to speak. We were learning a variation of an amad (I think) today and there are three really fast spins which my Guru substituted with something else if we weren't able to do the spins and I couldn't do them. Normally when I don't get something in Kathak, I try again and try not to get too disheartened but that didn't happen today. I was totally destroyed at not being able to do these spins! It may sound a little over the top but I was just so disappointed in myself.

I think for someone to think that to be an artist is to be a free and happy soul with no cares in the world, is a dream. We have to struggle and dig deep to find that motivation to continue and it isn't easy but we do try and do continue because if there is one thing an artist does have it is a love for his art. Kathak is slowly becoming an integral part of my life, and I don't mean spinning to the kettle to make a cup of tea instead of walking (which yes does happen!), I mean that the way I carry myself, the way I think and feel, is drawn from Kathak in many ways, I can't necessarily put it into words but Kathak is becoming a part of my identity as much as an art that I am learning.

We all go on journeys at some point in our lives to find ourselves, to figure out who we are and who we want to be. For me I have been on that journey and found my answers but dance is almost like a second journey, figuring out who I am in the context of Kathak or Bharatanatyam. I believe my journey to finding my place in the world of Kathak has only just begun and it is not going to be an easy path, but then nothing worthwhile ever is easy!

Happy dancing!

The Weekly Grind: BN

Namaste all!


I'm really not very good at posting these Weekly Grinds! Anywho here are some more of my thoughts from Bharatanatyam class =]

One thing is becoming more and more evident to me these days; one has to dance for oneself and for God. What I mean is (and I'm sure I won't be the first one to say this) in class it is so often the norm to have a giggle with friends, see what your friends are doing to see if you're doing the right thing, which is all fine, however, there is a time and a place I've started to realise.

When we go through pieces in class I think the only way I can really concentrate on what I'm doing is to not see what is around me, but rather to imagine myself in a white room with nothing but the sound of the music and my stamping. When I look at other people I sometimes get things wrong because they did or I find myself feeling disconnected from the dance which isn't the point of Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam for me should be a spiritual connection with oneself. As Bharatanatyam dancers we are encouraged to reflect on our own position in the world, on how we as spiritual beings find our way on the path that is life. So if we go through the Alarippu in class for example, I have come to realise that unless I devote myself to the piece, to each and every "tam dhi tam tai" then I don't fully understand or enjoy the essence of Alarippu. 

I believe that Indian classical dance is not only way of truly being all that we are as humans but also all that we are as spiritual beings. When we dress up for dance performances we transform into the brides and grooms of God. Spirituality and dance are so closely interwoven and I think it's important that this spirituality is present even in class. 

Mallari. My biggest enemy and dearest love. We have finally finished the whole piece! However come next lesson I'll have forgotten half of it no doubt. The Mallari for me is just the definition of Nritta in Bharatnatyam. From slow to fast and then back to slow, the mesmerising syllables and subtle beauty of the human body, I adore it and yet I struggle to dance it. I simply don't have the stamina, but as they say practice makes perfect! So alas, I must practice more. Having watched many different variations of Mallari, I am perhaps very one-sided in thinking that our Mallari is one of the most beautiful. I shall hopefully be going elsewhere to study Bharatanatyam soon so I'm glad I've had the opportunity to learn this version from my Guru before I go anywhere.


Until next time!

Happy Dancing!