Mm Mm Monday - Devyani Puja as Dance

I remember being completely mesmerized by this piece by Devyani and FCBD, where they took the traditional puja and set it to "Maya's Theme" from Kama Sutra the movie and put it on stage.  The changes they made suit the music well, and overall you get the sense of devotion and reverence the puja embodies, while still being appropriate as a stage performance.

Carolena can read minds...

...and other wonderful tidbits in Part 1 of 2 interviews with Carolena and Megha by a couple of gals in Florida, Mary and Tammy. I love especially the discussion of preparing students for performance starting at around 25 minutes.

http://www.yippodcast.com/2009/07/episode-11a-fatchance-interview-pt-1.html

Here is a transcribed snippet, from around :50, in brief, to whet your whistle:

Yip: "Through the years...how do you keep ATS fresh? I mean, do you guys add in new moves, and how do you decide if you're gong to add something in or...the creative process behind that."

Carolena: "You know, I don't even think about keeping it fresh. I just do it. And I don't consciously say, you know, 'This is getting stale. We need a new move." We just do what we do.

And it's like an energy bounce. It just keeps rolling and rolling and rolling, and I just, I follow it. I don't direct it. D'you know what I mean? It's like I really feel like it never really intended for it to happen in the first place. It just sort of showed up and like, said, 'Chase me,' and I was like 'Okay, I'll chase you.'

And it's still like that. I really feel like there is a Dance Goddess who wanted me to present this to everybody, and I was like, 'Me? I'll try.' And she's been running ahead of me all these years..."