Over the summer, Varsha Kuchi, sophomore, performed at the Drive East festival of Indian dance and music in New York City. The festival lasted one week, but Kuchi and her studio, Temple of Dance, showcased their talents for one night only.
Smitha Rajan, teacher at Temple of Dance, chose only three students to accompany her to the festival. “I chose Varsha because she is a great dancer, very hard-working, and very dedicated,” Rajan said. “I felt really happy and really surprised to be chosen, because there are other girls at the studio who are a lot better and more experienced than I am,” Kuchi said.
Kuchi started rehearsing for the festival in mid-July and performed in late August.
“The closer to a performance we are, the more I have a class to go to,” Kuchi said. “Over the summer, I went in the evenings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for an hour each day, and on Saturday, in the morning, from 9:30 to 12:30.”
“It was a fairly short time frame for us, so we had to learn really quickly,” Kuchi said.
Temple of Dance performed two pieces at the festival. One was a full-fledged routine with lyrics and a story to the dance, while the other was strictly used to showcase the style of dance and what the dancers were capable of.
In Temple of Dance’s first piece, the dancers used a story from Indian mythology of the young Lord Krishna. According to the myth, Krishna was a very naughty child who put mud in his mouth while playing outside. Before his mother could scold him, he opened his mouth to reveal the waters of a whole river, and she passed out in awe.
Indian dance tells a story; expressions and precise movements are key.
“The hardest part of dance, for me, is my expressions,” Kuchi said. “It’s not the footwork or my hand movements, but it’s showing the audience what I’m thinking and the story I’m trying to tell.”
Both routines were a style from Southern India, known as Mohiniyattam, which involves lots of swaying, bending and circular motions around the stage.
Kuchi has been performing Mohiniyattam since the eighth grade, but she also has two other styles. She began learning Kuchipudi at the age of five and Bharatanatyam in seventh grade.
While dancing on stage is stressful, Kuchi would not change it for the world.
“I’m always just so scared that I’m going to mess up,” Kuchi said. “No matter how prepared I am for a performance, there’s always that fear that something will go wrong.”
Even with the fear of messing up, Kuchi still loves showing off her moves on stage.
“My favorite part of dance is performing on stage because I get to show other people what I’ve learned and what I can do,” she said. “I get such an accomplished feeling when I perform to my full potential.”