How do I put down in words all that I experienced in the last two and a half months in the US? When I saw the movie 'The Da Vinci Code' on the first day of its release, I felt let down. After reading the book, which was so elaborate in its narration, I felt that the movie hadn’t done justice to it. I feel the same way about packing a two and a half month long dance tour of the US into a couple of pages. The experiences along with the numerous people I met, the number of cities I visited, the varieties of food I ate and the amount of traveling I did, cannot be easily put down into a few words. But I will try and give you a feel of what my tour had to offer me.

I was invited by a Pittsburgh based dance company, Srishti Dances of India, to collaborate with them in a production called 'Yugma', meaning 'together' in Sanskrit. Sreyashi Dey, the Artistic Director of Srishti and an acclaimed Odissi dancer based at Ann Arbor, MI and Vijay Palaparty, a member of Srishti and a well established Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer, based at Pittsburgh have been instrumental in doing a lot of constructive work since 1995 in promoting Indian Dance in the US through performances and outreach programmes.

My entry into the US was at Washington DC where my sister Nomita received me on the 16th of March. She drove me to Pittsburgh the next morning, which then became my base and home for the next two and a half months. Pittsburgh reminded me a lot of Coonoor with its greenery and hilly terrain and I felt very much at home immediately. Sreyashi’s co-dancer Manoranjan Pradhan, a leading Odissi dancer from the Orissa Dance Academy in India arrived the same day as me. With no time to think about jet lag, we were thrown straight into rehearsals and hours of choreography.

Considering that 'Yugma' was to premier on the 25th and 26th of March in Cleveland, we had 8 days to put together our items. That meant working through the days and nights, taking breaks only when our bodies cried for food and rest. Food and sleep became our last priority but it was well worth the effort. Also, Vijay being the only non full-time dancer among the 4 of us could make time for rehearsals only after 6 p.m. everyday. He works for a non-profit organization at the African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh which keeps him extra busy during the day. And he did manage to balance his work, the tour and handling the affairs of Srishti along with Sreyashi.

Our hosts in Cleveland and Phoenix

Our programmes in Cleveland were very well received and I also had the good fortune to meet up with an old friend and well known dancer Sujatha Srinivasan who attended our programme. Vijay’s family in Cleveland took very good care of us. His mother, Satya aunty and his brother Ajay played excellent hosts and turned out the most mouth watering meals for us. They did everything in their capacity to see that we were comfortable. Satya aunty’s speciality was her badam kheer and we ended up drinking lots of it.

Ann Arbor, MI the home of Sreyashi was our next performance venue. I must add here that she took a lot of effort and time in making the cues for the lighting and spent a couple of hours before each performance with the sound and light technicians. This enhanced the quality of our programmes everywhere and I also learnt a lot by watching her work.

Phoenix was part of another tour called 'Rasa', which Vijay and I presented in 4 cities in the US. Srimathi, an old student of Shree Bharatalaya, and her family were our gracious hosts during our stay with them. Her daughters Prithvi and Vaibhu were the sweetest and went out of their way to see that we were happy. Srimathy and I did a lot of catching up since we were meeting after many years.

From Phoenix we flew to Indianapolis and presented 'Yugma', which was organized by the desi Community there. In between all the touring, I made a quick dash to DC to receive my daughter Kaushika who arrived from India for a vacation to stay with my family and her cousins. I managed to catch up on a lot of sleep before our next 2 programmes on the 8th & 9th of April in Pittsburgh. The Kelly Strayhorn theatre in Pittsburgh has very good energies. The programme we gave on the 8th was one of the best. The audience was wonderful and the vibes we felt were overpowering. They gave us a standing ovation and we had to return for more curtain calls. Dr. Sunil Kothari who was present that evening, noticed that the audience sat on the edge of their seats throughout the performance.

Enjoying Walla Walla . .

April 14th was a performance at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Oregon, in my opinion is the most gorgeous state with a breathtaking scenery. At the house of our hosts Dr. Nagendra and Parimala we got to taste some traditional dishes from Karnataka. We drove the next day from Portland to Walla Walla in Washington State. It was one of the prettiest drives I’ve ever experienced with the Columbia river along one side and the snow capped mountains in the distance. At Walla Walla we had brunch with the students and faculty of the Whitman college where we were to perform that evening. Unfortunately, that day being Easter Sunday, most of the students were away so the crowd was a bit thin.

The only free weekend without a performance was spent at Columbus with my good ol' friend and dancer from Shree Bharatalaya, Smitha Magal. Besides holding a workshop for her students, we attended a birthday party of her son Pranav’s friend where I was amazed to see so many people from the Telugu community. On the following day Smitha and her students performed for the Kannada Ugadi celebrations. Her senior student Matangi has been very well trained by her. Here again the people from the Kannada community turned out in large numbers. These two occasions made me feel like I was back in India.

'Tiramisu' in Plattsburg

It was back to hard work, once I returned to Pittsburgh. Our next show of 'Yugma' was in Plattsburg. We flew to Burlington where we rented a car and drove onto a ferry, which took us across the river Champlain and then drove to Plattsburg. But even better than the ferry ride, our performance, or our stay at Plattsburg was the 'Tiramisu' I had at an Italian restaurant. My favourite dessert, it had been made by the mother of the proprietor of the restaurant where we stopped to have lunch. I have never tasted a better Tiramisu and would go all the way back to Plattsburg, if I had to eat it again. Our hostess Ellen, lived with 3 big dogs, 3 cats, a turtle and a lizard. Not a big fan of cats, I was forced to sleep with one on my bed the night after our performance because it refused to budge when I tried chasing it away! Finally exhaustion took over my senses and I must say I had a good night's sleep in spite of the cat.

Rochester was a 5 ½ hour drive away from Plattsburg and that was our final destination for 'Yugma'. The tour ended on a high note, again with a standing ovation from a very good audience who passed on their energies and vibes to us.

Back in Pittsburgh, I had an opportunity to visit the Venkateswara temple at Penn Hills with another friend and Bharatalaya student Mridula who took time off to show me around. Earlier I had visited her dance class and spent time with her students. Her little son Amrit became my best friend.

Interaction with children

A highlight of my tour was an interaction with children of the Sacred Heart Elementary School in Pittsburgh. People from different parts of the world were invited to speak to the students about their culture. Each classroom was named after a particular country and I was designated the India classroom. I had 3 sessions each with the kids of the 6th 7th and 8th grades. Besides watching me perform the Mahadeva Kautuvam, the older children enjoyed the Navarasas and the younger ones had the opportunity to figure out what animals and birds I was depicting through hastas, abhinaya and my body language. They were pretty successful in their attempts.

As part of the 'Rasa' tour, Vijay and I performed at the Breathe Yoga Studio in Pittsburgh on the 12th of May and in Columbus on the 13th of May. Kaushika, who was in Pittsburgh with me by then, was also part of these programmes. The performance for the Columbus Carnatic Music Association was a first dance performance ever hosted by them. The normal practice is to host only music concerts. So we had a huge responsibility on our shoulders to see that we made the programme well worth it. I think we were successful in that since the audience appreciated our efforts with a standing ovation.

On the 14th of May, Vijay and I performed at Houston for Samskriti, Society for Indian Performing Arts, which then concluded our 'Rasa' tour. I stayed on for 3 more days to work with the students of the well known dancer Rathna Kumar at the Anjali Center. While at Houston, I also had the pleasure of staying with my friends Siddu and Anjana and also met up with Lavanya, a Bharatalaya student, and her fiancé Krishna.

After over 2 months of rehearsals, late nights, traveling and performances, I went home to my family in DC where we had a reunion after 20 years, with my parents, sisters and brother. But that was not really the end of performing. Kaushika and I gave a performance at the McLean School of Maryland where my sister Nomita works as an art teacher. This was a fund-raiser for the Special Children of UDHAVI in Coonoor where I have been volunteering my time for the last 13 years. It made me happy that I could put my art to use constructively to benefit the less fortunate children back home in Coonoor.

Great hospitality

A few things that struck me during my stay in the US was the hospitality of each and every host we stayed with; the excellent facilities provided by the theatres in terms of audio, lighting, green rooms and rest rooms; the energies that flowed between the audiences and us during performances and the standing ovations we got at every performance – things I have not experienced in India before...

I did manage to do other 'fun' things besides the touring. I made a visit to the Pittsburgh zoo with Kaushika. On another occasion a friend of mine Barbara spent a morning showing me around the city of Pittsburgh. I also had the good fortune to be present for a book reading by the well known Indian author Chitra Divakaruni and got her to autograph her latest book 'The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming' for me. Of course I saw 'The Da Vinci Code' on the first day of its release and also attended a reception for the Silk Screen Asian Film festival which was to open in Pittsburgh.

Kaushika and I flew back to India on the 29th of May after a long and successful tour......a tour that offered me more than I imagined...

KutcheriBuzz invites all those who interacted with Nalini on her US tour to post their own thoughts here if you wish to do so. You can mail to editor@kutcheribuzz.com.