Today, Benn came over around 5pm and we went to a performance at Jacob's
Pillow in Becket, MA (about 40 minutes from my house). Jacob's Pillow
puts on a series of dance performances at 6:30pm on their Inside/Out
Stage. The stage is outdoors and is just lovely to look at alone, as
its backdrop is the breathtaking Berkshire Hills. The audience can sit
on wooden benches, a hammock, picnic tables, folding chairs, or several
large rocks that skirt the perimeter of the seating area. There was
quite a big audience when we arrived, so we sat on one of the tall rocks. The temperature was perfect- not too hot because of a rain
storm that had just gone through and yielded a beautiful, calm sky with
not too much worry of mosquitoes. We saw three dances which, together, lasted around 45 minutes in total with a Q&A segment afterward. The type of dances, called Bharatanatyam, were performed by
Dr. Janaki Rangarajan. She had begun studying the dance style, which
used to be exclusively performed by female Indian temple dancers, since
she was 4 years old. She has trained during several apprenticeships and has also been an instructor herself. Now, the dance form has opened up to include male dancers as well.
Pupils of this discipline train very hard and typically also have to
train in voice work/singing (I forget the name of it, though). Superficially,
I looooved the way Janaki looked, with her long dark braided hair,
accessories, and complete Indian garb. I liked her bell-clad anklets
that she was trained to make chime to the beat of the music. More
profoundly, I was fascinated by the information provided in her
introduction and answers to audience questions. Dr. Janaki Rangaranjan
choreographs many of her own performances and I had a blast watching
them! Her movements are almost constant, as nothing- not even her
hands- stays in the same position for more than 10 seconds or so. In
Bharatanatyam, even the muscles in the face are used extensively - the
mouth, the eyes, forehead, etc. These instances were one of my
favorites throughout the performances, which Benn and I dubbed "face
dancing!" I thought it was interesting when Janaki explained and
demonstrated how all of her movements have
different meanings or significances-- each dance tells a story. We both had a bunch of fun and oh yeah! Benn's blog will probably tell about the two kids we encountered- it was so cool and weird!!! After Jacob's Pillow, Benn and I drove to my new office (which was on the way) so that I could drop stuff off and pick stuff up! I got to show Benn where I will be working so that he knows where to find me. I also got 4 recycling bins for the floor so I can take care of that, because nobody really recycled last semester. On Fridays, I used to sift through the little trash bins with a plastic bag and collect paper and cans/bottles/plastic/glass. I know it sounds gross but it wasn't bad like REAL garbage- it was just office and student trash like papers and drink containers. In the office, we played music while Benn helped me hang my calendar and pictures. That turned out being kind of fun, too :)
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