The Interview of a Dancer

I KNOW IT'S BEEN WAY TOO LONG SINCE I LAST POSTED SOMETHING! I'm so sorry. I've been meaning to post this for a while, and in the mean time I've been drought of ideas for writing poetry - instead I've been writing songs. Perhaps I'll share some of those here too?

Today I want to introduce you to my friend Miruthula Jagadesan. I have the honor of having her be my first interview!

Miruthula, nicknamed Miru, is a passionate classical dancer. She is the state ambassador for IndianRaga for Bharatanatyam in Arizona.

Miruthula Jagadesan

Her journey started way back in 2005, around October, when she was looking for a dance teacher. She was introduced to Smt. Preeti Anand, founder and director of Samarpan School of Dance which teaches bharatanatyam in the Kalakshetra style, who has been her dance teacher till date.

Miru was one of the first students in that dance class and she’s the only pioneer student remaining. 

“The classes were very interesting and engaging. We had classes on mudras and stories the last fifteen minutes of every class to keep the students engaged initially. My teacher was very creative! I loved the classes.”

Miruthula didn’t get to dance on stage until she was three years into learning Bharatanatyam because the teacher was very keen on them mastering the basics. Having done that, Miruthula’s debut on stage was at the Indo American Center. “The theme was spreading awareness for the blind and for them to get eyesight,” Miru said, “So we danced for a song called Anbe Shivam Arule Deivam, and my teacher opened up the dance, then giving way for her young students to take the stage and shine for the very first time.”

More students began to join, and soon enough Miru was the only pioneer student left.

“It is very important for any artist to have proper guidance from the beginning stage or else they will lose interest very easily and it’s really hard to retract and like that art form again,” Miruthula warns. “I’m very lucky to have a teacher so dedicated and knowledgable. She guides the students so well!”

Her dance school has done a big production back in 2011 – the entire Ramayana epic. “From planning it out and printing brochures, everything was interesting and the whole thing was a really good, fun experience.”

Miruthula with her dance teacher Preeti Anand

ARANGETRAM:

Miruthula had a memorable Arangetram here in the US. She had fun planning it out. Miru, her mom and her dance teacher found all the sarees for the costumes online, had them stitched in India, and brought to her home in Chandler, Arizona. To their surprise, everything turned out really well! The jewelry was custom made, too. Her maternal grandparents, her aunt flew from Pennsylvania, and about 800 more people came to watch her performance. 

“Practice was tedious. I learnt a lot – especially how much commitment a dancer needs to do Arangetram. Everything hurts (hahaha) and it's hard but all the pain pays off and in the end I felt awesome. I think it ended so fast and could've lasted longer…” She received many congrats emails and letters at the end, which gave her the confidence that she was doing her job right and encouraged her to keep pursuit down this path.

From then on, Miru has started choreographing dances for various programs and performances. She’s even found some interested young dancers who are willing to perform under her choreography! “I have also danced with them all for big events like Arizona Tamil Sangam and the dances have all been hits so far!”

The Indo American Center invited her to dance in honor of the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam sir after his death shook the world. She humbly accepted the invitation and danced in tribute to Kalam sir with a few fellow dancers. An article on it was published in an Indian newspaper in the US.
She submits videos every month for IndianRaga monthly worldwide competitions where dancers are given a topic to dance on. She has been the runner up twice and won for June's contest. She was invited to perform at a private gathering of the IndianRaga Champions Meet event for which she went to Boston on August 6th, 2016 at the Cambridge Innovation Center.

SO WHAT’S SHE DOING WHEN SHE’S NOT DANCING?

Miruthula is a student at Arizona State University (ASU), pursuing engineering. “It’s not easy, it takes a lot of time, and many people have asked me why I don’t just take up dance. People shouldn’t be paying for education or for the arts. I won’t be taking that as a career. I want to take engineering because I think it can help me with my dance, like building a website and managing productions and events. It can aid in promoting my dance.”

She balances college and dance. She says that if you love something, you make time for it. She does schoolwork on weekdays and spends her weekends for dance. One of her biggest inspirations is watching other dancers on YouTube. “I try to take the traits I like about certain dancers, may it be the Abhinaya, or how they carry out certain steps, and try to implement it in my own style.  In my free time, I watch videos of accomplished dancers to educate myself more on the art form. Some of my inspirations in Bharathnatyam are Smt. Leela Samson, Smt. Priyadarshini Govind, Apoorva Jayaraman and Rukmini Vijaykumar."

Local dancers have been contacting her to dance with them. She has two projects in line right now: in the next two months she will be performing in big events happening in the valley (Arizona).

Here's a picture of myself with Miruthula. BTW Miru is actually standing on her toes in this picture here so she doesn't look too short! Hahaha, she's always fun to be around.

FEELINGS, THOUGHTS, ASPIRATIONS AND DREAMS:

To Miruthula, dance is an integral part of her life. She finds herself and expresses herself through dance.

“I live my life through dance,” she proudly states. “I think dance helps me more than anything, and it makes people happy watching me dance. Entertaining them can help me keep this up!”

According to Miru, these are the most important qualities of a dancer:

1. Commitment

2. Interest

3. Stamina

4. Open to new ideas/Creativeness 

5. Being expressive/not shy

6. Good time Management

7. Music knowledge to some extent

Miruthula hopes to one day start her own institution and teach dance to anyone and everyone who wants to learn, whether or not they can afford it, because she wants this art form to keep from disappearing. As a patriotic Indian, the least she can do to give back to the art form that has given her so much is to spread one of the most ancient dance forms alive to more people, in all its cultural richness.

Like all great artists indulged entirely in their art form, Miruthula’s heart’s desire is a simple, admirable one that showcases her love for Bharatanatyam.

“My wish is to die dancing.”