Dollu Kunitha by Nagaraj

Looks like it's my week of attending dance performances....and what's more, by friends !

Nagaraj has (is) an interesting story. He was part of a theater troupe called 'theater samurai', which had their own kannada play production, and they would tour six months of the year across Karnataka, enacting the play in different villages and towns. Then on health grounds he had to quit that and move to Bangalore. And then he got working here...that was three years ago.

Guess the theater never left him. He now quit his job to again pursue his passion for the theater. A tough decision, and I've seen him struggle with the decision for well over an year. A couple months back he took the leap....it's ultimately that leap of faith, as the answers just aren't there at the beginning. Bold step for sure.....as, like they say 'courage is not the absence of fear, but acting inspite of it' 

It's been a few months since he quit his job, and he's been feeling his way around the theater and tv scene since. Currently, he conducts theater workshops for children, does assistant director jobs (for plays) on freelance basis, and is parallely doing his masters in theater.

So yesterday when he sent me the invite for a program of his department, there was no way I wasn't going.

The Dollu Kunitha is a popular drum dance of Karnataka, rhythmic, high energy and powerful. They enter through the audience end, literally making the whole hall reverberate to the drum beat.

Nagaraj is second from right

Another pic from the dance

A couple of other dances from the evening...a bharatnatyam dance performed to folk music...was nice

Kathak....really graceful and pretty. I have a soft corner for Kathak, as a close friend back in college was a kathak dancer, and thanks to her, I've attended more Kathak performances than any other. 

This was a kannada play by an external troupe called the 'touring talkies', of which we caught only the tail end. This sequence was touching though. The elderly gentleman is a poet, and has all his poems in that bag, and he's selling it off to the kirana shop guy for a paltry sum. And when the shop guy asks him why he doesn't ask the government for help, he says something like 'the government awarded me and appreciated me..... the readers read me and enjoyed me, and maybe some imbibed me.....but now the time is over'

Nagaraj, glad to have attended. Also, clichéd as it may sound, happy to see you chase your dream. There's a quote of Bruce Lee which goes something like this ' Once you decide to go in for the fight, don't go in with conditions, be prepared for the bruises and broken bones'. (This has really helped me in some tough moments, so thought I'd share :)

Lots and lots of good wishes and blessings to you in your journey ahead !!