One of the missions of the Fulbright Program is to foster cultural exchange, in addition to scholarly exchange. There definitely is no lack of American culture here, so I am doing my best to provide some Indian culture. There is a slight exotification of the culture, especially given the beautiful people and plotlines in the telenova “India, una historia de amor,” but I can't complain too much about that. There are also some stereotypes/preconceived notions (which I love breaking down), and those can be frustrating at times. I made some contacts with a dance studio and the university’s folklorico group to arrange free workshops about Indian dance. A few weeks ago I taught a two hour Indian dance workshop (Bollywood, folk) at a small dance studio; there were only 4 girls, and two of them were my friends, and 1 of them the owner of the studio. We had an awesome time and I taught in Spanish! The next workshop is in December and I’ll be making up a routine to Desi Girl to teach. I have been obsessed with that song and haven’t had an opportunity to perform to it or choreograph for it.
I’m also giving a workshop on Indian Folk dance on campus, probably a 1 hour presentation and 1 hour dance class/demonstration. I even bought a few pairs of dandias to teach some Raas (which I found at a local Home Depot type of store). I’ll talk about the differences between folk and classical dance, play some music so they can hear the differences between types of music (ie Bhangra vs. garba), and teach some basic moves. Should be fun!
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