The Mind Creative
Costume malfunction is the most common. Once I was dancing
“Ganga” with my dance colleague who was enacting the role of
Shiva. While striking a particularly complex dance pose together,
somehow our elaborate necklaces got entangled! In the beginning
we stuck to the same pose hoping the necklaces would come apart,
but when it did not we looked at each other and turned our back
to the audience as if going into our own private retreat, while we
frantically tore at our neck pieces….and the music played on!
Finally we threw down the broken ornaments and turned towards
the audience smiling, while our faces were bathed in sweat from
the exertion!
On another occasion, we were performing in an open–air theatre,
set up against the backdrop of a beautiful lake. We were doing a
particularly lively dance; fast and peppy. All of a sudden my
attention was drawn towards one dancer, who was merrily dancing
away, while 6 yards of her sari trailed behind her! She was totally
unaware that her attire had slipped off and she was down to her
rather ornate leggings! It took all our skill to keep tripping over
her sari and even a more “advanced” skill-set to frantically
gesticulate through our dance movements and to whisper through
our smiles to get her attention!
Sometimes, unprecedented things happen on the stage and it
takes a lot of effort to put up a seemingly normal front for the
audience. I recollect a particularly hilarious episode which took
place in one of the most famous opera houses in USSR. I
remember being extremely excited to be performing at one of the
iconic venues in the world! The stage set ups were extremely
elaborate. However the sound and light technicians operated from
under the stage and were connected to the stage through a circular
opening in the corner in front of the stage. The production was a
dance drama that required a lot of rushing to and fro back stage.
After a quick costume change I had to re-enter in a particularly
emotional sequence, wherein I, as a rejected heroine, had to react
to a scene wherein her lover was in the midst of a marriage
ceremony with another woman. As I entered the stage, ready to
throw myself in the throes of grief and shock, I noticed the peculiar
expressions on the faces of other d