11/03/08

I haven’t really written in awhile. It’s not from lack of material to write about, sadly, it’s because I’ve been super busy doing Sharpe and Sorority things. We’ve had a big development since I’ve last written. Our banjar is scheduled to perform at the Kimball at the international dance show next Friday. That’s coming up really soon. At first I was really hesitant to do it because I don’t like dancing in front of a large group of people, especially at a performance where people have to pay, but the banjar and Francis have reassured me that all is well and that there is nothing to be ashamed. We’ve also set up our final performance at Berkley Middle School, which should be really cool. I feel like the middle schoolers will be really receptive to learning the dance moves, and maybe one day one of them will be inspired to take ICAPS at William and Mary. We’ve started developing our scene for our performance last week. It was really difficult to get the blocking and the chanting down (particularly the transitions), but today we got most of that taken care of. Here’s a breakdown of the scene: Ravana asks his uncle to turn into a golden deer to lure Sita into his clutches. Sita chases the deer, and eventually sends Rama out to find it. Rama chases the deer and kills it, and it makes a scream and Sita hears it. She’s worried about Rama so she sends Lakshamana out to look for Rama. Lakshamana draws a protective circle around Sita and goes to look for Rama. In the meantime, Ravana comes to Sita dressed as a beggar and lures her out of the circle. He scoops her up and takes her away to Lanka. My role consists of being a tree for the deer to run around, making the sounds in the circle, and being one of the beggars that tries to lure Sita out of her protective circle.