Belonging
With cold stone floors, walls the color of terracotta, and the pungent aroma of the Indian restaurant next door barely covered by jasmine incense, my dance teacher’s studio is nothing out of the ordinary. Every Saturday morning since I was five, I’ve walked into this building, carefully slipping out of my shoes and tying a Indian shawl called a dupatta around my waist. I greet my teacher, calling her “aunty” as a form of respect, and make my way to the back to pray before my dance group and I start our dance practice.
I learn Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance originating in Southern India about 2,000 years ago. As the daughter of immigrants, I’ve often felt conflicted growing up in the Bay Area, with pressure to keep in touch with cultural roots as well as conform to American practices. However, through Bharatanatyam dance class, I was able to explore my cultural niche in American society and truly feel as though I belong. Through learning this form of Indian classical dance, I was able to familiarize myself with Indian myths and cultural practices, things my parents somehow expected me to know but never quite taught me. I was able to have conversations with my grandmother, a deeply religious Hindu who encourages me to return to Hindu mythology when I encounter issues in my own life. On the flip side of the cultural aspect, I was able to explore what it meant to be American with my dance group, 15 Indian girls that were my same age. After practice, we’d slip out of our kurtas, traditional Indian flowy tops, into t-shirts and leggings to get boba tea from a small shop across the street. We would discuss everything under the sun-- school and social media influencers, to when we would see eachother next at our local temple. The most interesting thing to me was that “Indian” and “American” topics were never separate, but intermingled into one vibrant conversation, much like our bi-cultural lives. By living this strange dichotomy of traditional and modern, I found my place as a Asian-American who cares deeply not only about the nation I was born into, but also the culture I come from.
I love the imagery and description, it makes it really easy to imagine. I also love how you talked about the marriage of the Asian and American identities in this example. Great work! I would maybe break it up into a smaller paragraph, it is a large chunk of text.
ReplyDeleteI relate to your experiences with Bharatanatyam because as a child, I was able to establish connections with my peers through the same form of Indian classical dance. Have you looked at the effect of Bharatanatyam and classical Indian dance on your ability to better connect with the Indian community even outside the classroom? You might consider tweaking the way you refer to being American and offer an even more concrete example of that relationship in order to better establish the bridge between both cultures. Perhaps you can expand on the belonging that each community offered separately which led to the eventual blend that you felt.
ReplyDeleteThere was so much detail that it was so captivating to read especially in the introduction. I love how you brought the two cultures together and how that positively shaped you
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