Culturama India

For my final Culturama I got placed into India, thus continuing my journey into Indian dance, in this case, we were doing a South Indian dance traditionally done by men but the dance leader had opened it up to both genders. It was very different from kahaani because of this, the dance style was a lot more violent and a lot of the moves were very awkward and felt strange doing them as a girl and I couldn’t stop laughing at first. However, in the end, it all came together and I got over my initial I’m making a fool of myself phase, I’m really glad I did this as I am North Indian and it was really fun to experience other Indian cultures and the dance itself was tremendous fun because it was meant for men and the majority of the dancers were female which led to a lot of chaos during rehearsals.

Project Week Reflection – Dance

As I’ve said a lot in my reflections I’m no dancer but in the CAS spirit of pushing myself for project week we set up classes with THE Tanushree Shankar at her dance academy. I was absolutely terrified of this as it was for Indian classical dance which I have no background in and she is one of the country’s leading choreographers and dancers, I was certain I’d make a complete fool of myself. However, it was a lot of fun and by the end of the 5 classes she had taught us a whole dance that we brought back and incorporated into Kahaani and it was a really nice way of experiencing another aspect of South Indian culture from a place I have no experience with. Stepping out of my comfort zone definitely paid off here and being in a group where only one of us had any dance background really helped as the majority of us had similar fears and we all encouraged and motivated each other.

Project Week Reflection – VOW

VOW was a really incredible experience for me I had some experience working with disabled people through RDA however I had mainly worked with children with physical disabilities and at VOW I interacted more with children with physical disabilities. We were taken on tours to see where the children live and where the money the school was sending was going and it was incredible to see the work we had heard about and have been supporting through our beloved Kahaani, at each of these locations we talked with the children and learnt more about their pasts etc which was very difficult at first due tot he language barrier but we soon discovered that I could speak to them in Hindi and they would understand the general gist of the sentence and reply in a broken Hindi and English combination. We visited the school where the children were taught and sat in their classes alongside them learning how to read and write in braille or how to make the small crafts (jewellery, bags) they sell at their stalls. It was really interesting as even with my eyes open looking at a key I struggled to make the holes the correct depth for braille yet a 5 yr old girl who too was a beginner and fully blind easily could, the same scenario happened when weaving or braiding for the arts and crafts. I had heard a lot about how capable the children were but it was another thing entirely to see it in action.

Project Week CAS Reflection – Planning

For my project week trip we organised 5 days of volunteering with Voice of World an NGO partnered with our school, they function as an orphanage and home for disabled children, providing them with a safe home and the medical care they need. VOW also organises various trips for them like mountain climbing expeditions for the more able kids and various other outings around India. As our school raises money for them through Kahaani a dance showcase I was involved in planning we decided for our activity we would undertake dance classes and we were fortunate enough to learn from one of India’s best classical dancers Tanusree Shankar which was an amazing experience as although Kahaani had sparked a love of dance in me I had never had the opportunity to attend a dance class. We also attended some painting classes at an art school as our creativity aspect which was a nice experience however not as impactful as the activity and service elements of the week.

Planning Project Week was a really interesting experience for me as I had never organised any trip before myself, and had never communicated with an NGO as although I was part of a GC in school I was never chair and therefore didn’t communicate directly with the NGO. This was a really vital experience as it not only taught me how to communicate professionally with organisations but how to utilise connections and build relationships with organisations abroad. We were also travelling to a part of India I had never been to and don’t speak the language for so general communication with some of the organisations was very difficult due to the language barrier which is something I learnt to overcome through this