Kalanjali: Unique Expressions of Love
Written by: SaiKeertana Ganta and Anshu Voruganti
"If there's a need, we'll make it happen!" This is something Akka has been saying since our first camp, and this experience was yet another testament to that.
Dance has always been one of our biggest passions. From learning the art form Bharatanatyam from very young ages, to completing our arangetrams, we often find ourselves trying to incorporate dance into everything we do. And for us, camp was no exception.
The piece was recorded in Hyderabad by a dear gurubandhu uncle, MSR Uncle, who was so kind to us throughout the process and worked so hard to make sure we got the song exactly how we wanted. He used phrases like “amma” and “talli” even though we had never met him before and it reminded us how lucky we are to have such a beautiful gurubandhu family. The recording took place in a professional studio, where he collaborated with a classical dancer to adapt the piece for Bharatanatyam. Together, they composed the song into the rich, danceable version it is today. This is the only Bharatanatyam version of the Guru Paduka Stotram ever created. We hope to share this song online for free to inspire future classical dancers to choreograph and celebrate this piece in their own way.
Since we had just received the music for our solo piece days before the camp, we hadn’t had a chance to choreograph it yet, apart from the group performance. Regardless we found ways to manage our time at camp to make sure we made progress everyday. At times where we wanted to rest before our afternoon activity, we would both stand in the middle of all the geckos beds and choreograph ideas to our duo piece. For the two weeks of camp, we spent about 4 or 5 days focused on our own dance and had finally finished choreographing. The fun thing about choreographing for us is that we both have similar ways of dancing but were both taught in different styles. This actually allows us to learn different variations from one another making it a way to enhance our dancing skills.
During our trip to Germany and Spain, we got reconnected to the Guru Paduka Stotram when we sang it there. We got so attached to the song and would always hum it because of the beauty in its tune and lyrics. This connection made us want to express this song in the way we knew best: dance. We mentioned this to Akka when we were planning the Sangeetanjali, a small token of our appreciation of the lovely people we had been introduced to in Spain.
However, since the original version of the song is too slow for a Bharatanatyam piece, we looked for versions that were more suited to bharatanatyam. Unfortunately, we could not find any versions available that were could represent our desired expression. Akka then assured us that we could create one ourselves. A couple of months later, we began discussing cultural performances for the final night of camp. We started talking about what dances we wanted to do and this came back into conversation. Akka immediately started reaching out to different people in Saipatham that could help Keertana and I turn Guru Paduka Stotram into a bharatanatyam piece.
This year we also wanted to choreograph a dance from scratch using a familiar song of “Ninnugani Sharanamani” for the whole group to dance to. The first step to choreograph this dance was to figure out what steps matched up nicely to each of the beats. A few months before camp had started, we would call each other every other day and would spend about one hour going through parts of the song. Every 20 seconds of dancing required 10 minutes of formulating the perfect step. At first we moved at a snail’s pace making sure each and every step was something simple but elegant but soon became more efficient once we got into the rhythm of organizing the dance. After every call we had, we would go back and dance it ourselves whilst recording to make sure we wouldn’t forget our choreography. As camp had came around, we proudly finished the whole piece except the 20 second finale at the very end.
At the end of camp, we got to perform our group dance piece during Kalanjali — our cultural program as a tribute of our gratitude to our Summer Camp family. We had the best time planning, choreographing, and teaching the dance to everyone — it was a wonderful way for us to continue pursuing our passion for dance. We are so grateful to have incredible people around us that both support and encourage our dance journey and we can only seek blessings from Baba and Guruvugaaru for many more future opportunities to choreograph and dance.
