Dance Performance Tonight

We are currently in the pre-performance situation, and I am happily at the internet cafe. Dresing and preparing for dance takes hours and needs considerable patience. Lene is preparing Freya for the makeup artist. Usually Lene has to do Freya’s dance makeup and it is a certain cause of friction between the two of them. It would be funny if I weren’t related to those two. So having the makeup artist will ensure a friction free preparation. Thank you Sandeep!

Anyhow, Sandeep has organised Freya to perform at the annual Hyderabad 6 to 6teen (sic) talent competition. Sandeep is one of the judges and last Sunday he spent the whole day going through the auditions with the other judges to select the final shortlist of young performers for tonights programme.

Freya will be doing two dances we think, although she will not be eligible for the title as her dance teacher is on the panel. Its a good warmup for the Cuttuck performances in a couple of days. The venue is the beautiful NTR gardens, lakeside in Hyderabad. At night the whole place is lit up with fairy lights and has many attractions. It reminds me of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.

Tomorrow we will get on the train to Cuttuck in the state of Orissa, where freya will appear in an International Childrens Theatre & dance festival organised by UNESCO. The train journey is 22 hours which I confess to not looking forward to. However train is probably the nicest way to travel in India. We will be there for 4 days and again we will make the same journey back to Hyderbad. I will try to get to an internet cafe in Orissa to let you all know how it went.

Once be return to Hyderabad, we will be back for only one night, then we get into the car and go to Kuchipudi village, on the Krishna river by the bay of Bengal. This is what we all have been looking forward too. Kuchipudi Village is the place where Kuchipudi dance originated and is where all the Kuchipudi dance legends live.

Freya will be receiving two lessons a day from Sandeep’s two gurus. It a great privilege and is only possible because of the esteem Sandeep is held by these great men. I hope Freya is of a mind to take in the opportunity she is receiving.

Its a bit it hard for a 10 year old to understand fully the nature of this opportunity, but perhaps also its good that she is young enough to not be overawed.

Today whilst I was doing some work on my computer, Sandeep knocked on my door and introduced me to the Schools art teacher. After the introductions, the art teacher asked me about my tablet that I was using instead of a mouse. I said it was like a pen and that I use it when I want more control that pen gives. He asked if he could try it. So I said sure and opened up a new document in Photoshop and showed him how the brushes and eraser work. He asked me to look to my right and he proceeded to spend the next 15 mins with the tablet drawing.

Pretty good don’t you think for a first time with a tablet.