Performing with Kruti Dance Academy at a Wedding in Cartersville, GA
This week, I had the incredible opportunity to perform at a wonderful wedding as a dance performer part of Kruti Dance Academy. Bollywood dance is easily one of the most important pillars of my identity–not only is it my main connection to my culture, but it was really my first interaction with music. When I joined the academy at age four, I became fascinated with the thrill of Bollywood altogether, and I engulfed myself with the culture. I binged movies like Dhoom 2, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, and Bang Bang!--all incredible movies, by the way, which you should definitely watch if you haven’t (they’re usually all on Netflix or Prime Video)--and would marvel at actor Hrithik Roshan’s incredible acrobatic ability as he danced. After over a decade of practice, I certainly still am no Hrithik Roshan, but dance has become such a large segment of my life.
Every May, Kruti puts on an incredible show demonstrating the students’ work in a way that takes what conventional arts schools offer as a recital to a level of much higher magnitude (it’s really incredible–it’s Cirque du Soleil-awesome in my eyes). Preparation for that show swallows most of the spring semester, so the academy’s choice to perform at this wedding on April 20th, in the heat of preparations for the main concert, was a move that shocked me at first. However, after the performance, I realized how rewarding that decision was.
At the wedding, we brought just over a dozen performers and a handful of Kruti’s most entertaining recent pieces, of which I performed a duet from the upcoming May show with three other performers. The wedding effectively moved up our deadline to make that piece look great, so we had to work more swiftly with less rigidity and more creative freedom. We worked to repackage a piece that was intended for twelve performers on the May performance’s large stage in a way that was just as entertaining with four performers on a much smaller stage. We spent extra practices atop our already long hours at the studio adjusting choreography and formations for the piece. While I couldn’t see the reactions on the audience’s faces (I don’t perform with my glasses), we all felt we did our jobs well.
After a nearly two-hour drive to Cartersville, Georgia, the wedding performance truly was a great experience. I initially hesitated to accept this performance instead of attending my school’s honors night, but could not be more happy with my choice to perform. This opportunity not only awarded me wonderful bonding time with my friends at the academy, but also let me exercise my creative and physical muscles in a way that’s preparing me for our upcoming concert in May–which I’m sure in itself will be a great story to tell :)
