By Piyali Bhattacharya

The day of my Arangetram fell on the summer solstice. June 21, 2003. I’ll never forget it, not only because it was one of the most significant days in my life, but also because it far out-shadowed my high school graduation, which occurred just seven days later. It was a day I had worked toward for thirteen long years (yes, my parents enrolled me in Bharata Natyam classes when I was five), and when the day finally came, it was as gratifying and emotional as I had imagined it would be. My musical team and I performed a flawless Varnam, and magically, my Javeli was the most thoughtful it had ever been. Then there was the big moment: nothing really prepares you for the instant your Guru looks at you on stage and tells you that you are now officially ready to face the world of Dance.

Around school, my friends referred to my Arangetram as my “Dance Graduation.” This is a term I’ve had ambivalent feelings about. Technically, the term “Arangetram” or “Ranga Pravesha” means, I believe, the “Ascension of the stage.” It is supposed to be the first time a student of Bharata Natyam performs the pieces s/he has learned for a discerning audience. It seems counter intuitive, then, to refer to such an event as a “graduation,” a word whose etymology suggests completion.

And yet, as I watch more and more students of Bharata Natyam grow up in the States and go off to college and grad school, Arangetrams seem to be becoming quite a phenomenon. Very often, I find women (and it is mostly women who take up the dance form here in the States) who use their Arangetram as a way of stamping and sealing their Indian identity… not just for college applications or grants, but for themselves. Afterwards, very few of these women go on to pursue dance in any form.

The art form of Bharata Natyam has been steadily gaining popularity since it’s revival in the 1960’s. This is true both in India and in the States. However, in the States, Bharata Natyam seems to have taken on a life of its own. It is a very visible expression of identity, and it is also an art form in which one can easily climb the ladder of progress, in a way. That is to say, you start off with a simple “thaiyya-thai” and by the end you’ve progressed to an entire repertoire of dance pieces. This is different from say, vocal music, where the measure of how much you’ve learned can be a subjective opinion on how much the quality of your voice has changed.

So I suppose it isn’t surprising that Indian parents raising their children abroad often choose Bharata Natyam as a way of giving their children a perspective on Indian culture. After all, many dance pieces are based on Hindu mythology, and I can personally say that in addition to my Bharata Natyam training, I also learned a lot about Hinduism, spirituality, and the relationship between Guru and student, or Guru-Shishya Parampara, during my lessons. But I think something about the quality of Arangetrams that happen in the States is still inherently different from those that are more traditional.

To further investigate the issue, I talked to Bharata Natyam, Bollywood, Jazz, Tap and Modern Dancer Shivani Thakkar. Thakkar’s own mother was her Bharata Natyam teacher, and after attending USC and getting her degree in Theatre studies, Shivani has dedicated her life to learning and teaching Indian and fusion dance forms. This is what she had to say about Arangetrams in the west:
"I do agree that many young girls in the US and Canada pursue Bharata Natyam and the completion of their Arangetram to connect with their culture and feel a sense of identification with their Indian roots. My mom teaches in Canada and I have seen so many of her students work diligently up to their Arangetram and then stop dancing all together. Ironically, many of my mom's students who have continued pursuing the second and third level courses have been mainstream American or Canadian girls who are not Indian at all."

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with pursuing Bharata Natyam as a way of getting closer to your roots! This is exactly the reason my parents enrolled me in dance lessons at a young age, and it was in my dance school that I found a community of women to connect with through tough years in high school. Yet, I find it very interesting and not surprising that Thakkar’s Guruji’s advanced students are often not ethnically Indian, and that those who are use their Arangetrams to bolster their Indian upbringings.

I should say that I am not at all exempt from this. I’ve kept up with dance maybe more than many of my American Desi counterparts, starting a dance team and a Bharata Natyam workshop at my college. But I certainly haven’t pursued dance professionally. And obviously, just because you’ve had an Arangetram doesn’t mean you are mandated to go for a PhD in Bharata Natyam! I’m also not suggesting that the way the tradition of Arangetram has developed in the west is offensive. I loved having my entire high school in attendance at my ceremony, and photos from that day are priceless to me. Rather, I’m suggesting that even if after our Arangetrams we never put on our ghungroos again, we take a step back and think about what Arangetrams in this country have come to mean… and maybe reconsider referring to them or thinking of them as a kind of graduation, or as proof of Indian identity. Of course Bharata Natyam contributes to our Indianness, and by all means we should go ahead and have a big Arangetrams. But maybe we should keep in mind that a splashy celebration is fine, but the quality of belonging to a particular race or culture is inside of us, not reflected in an ornate invitation card.

Do you agree with Piyali’s take on Arangetrams in the West? Email her at egofemme@egothemag.com or leave a comment on the facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=225372522449&ref=ts

About the author:
Piyali Bhattacharya is an American-born Desi writer who contributes pieces about South Asian American Feminisms to EGO every fortnight. Please send comments to her at EGOfemme@egothemag.com or to EGO at info@egothemag.com

Image courtesy of Deviantart