Celebrating 10 years

It's official: I've been learning kathak for 10 years...and I haven't even scratched the surface. I know NOTHING. The more I learn, the more I realise that there is so much I don't know, so much my dance is lacking. But as I went through a little walk down memory lane (check out @ahanas_outlet on Instagram), I realised that there's also been a lot of improvement. I know my dance has changed, and more than that, my mindset has changed. During my 10th boards, I took a 6-month break from kathak. In that time, I was so afraid of losing touch with my dance that I actively made efforts to connect with it- whether it was watching old videos and practicing, or following kathak dancers on Instagram. Only after I did these things did I realise why my teachers had been suggesting them for so long- just observing other people dance teaches you so much, it gives you something to aspire to and it shows you your own room for improvement. My gurus always say, an artist should never be satisfied with themselves, be hungry for more, for improvement, but at the same time, it's important to look back and realise the progress we made, so I thought I'd take some time to do that. Progress is slow, and with classical dance, it's even slower, it is such a vast medium honed over centuries after all, but sticking with it has surely been a rewarding experience. Who knew just showing up would get me this far..