Travel often changes your perspective, and breaks the monotony of the daily grind. For Shruti Narayanan, a city girl and belly dance performing artiste and instructor, a trip to the Land of The Pharaohs, as a wide-eye touristy child, etched the path to her calling – belly dancing. A tedious content job, a degree and a couple of years later, she finally mustered up the courage. And, well, is chasing her childhood dream now — and going full throttle in her pursuit of the beautiful danceform. She is curating a historical belly dance production, The Oriental Trail 2.0, which charts the transcontinental evolution of the dance form we practice and throws light on the Orientalist perceptions that shaped it. The show will be staged on July 14, ADA Ranga Mandira.
“I was 11 years old and we went on a Nile Cruise where there was some live dancing and music along with all the food and the stunning views of the pyramids. I remember this particular dancer in white and that was the first time I was exposed to belly dance. I was dreamy eyed and observed her movements that seemed impossible to do. I came back and told my folks that I would love to dance like her someday. My parents laughed it off,” begins Shruti, who clearly seemed to have a connect with the art form, which boomeranged back into her life, a couple of years later. “It was only after the first year of college where I was reintroduced to belly dance, because I remember watching a TLC show called Shimmy, and that just sparked my long-lost interest once again. I fervently looked for classes online and attended my first class on August 24, 2011 and that’s how my tryst with belly dance began.”
Speaking of The Oriental Trail 2.0; she promises it to be an experience, which takes a detour from the usual. Shruti has done a part-time research under Dance Ethnography studies. “This is not going to be your regular show where we have one sequence after another in glamorous costumes. It is just a small endeavour to introduce people to some real belly dancing along with facts that I’m sure a lot of people would have not known. It is six months of hard work, strung together with a professional script and will chart the transcontinental evolution of the dance form as well as throw some light on the forgotten, folkloric styles and the Orientalist perceptions that shaped it,” states Shruti. She holds a PGDM in Arts Management from Chennai.
Currently doing what she loves, there clearly isn’t a demarcation between work and play. “I love to sing. I have been singing since I was a kid and even released my album in Mumbai at 13. It was at the time remixes were being made and I released this album in Mumbai, which had eight songs that were Lata and Ashaji’s songs and recorded at this studio in Andheri. But I always harbored a secret interest towards dance. I have also completed my Bharatnatyam Arangetram in the Kalakshetra style. I did it for about nine-and-a-half years and still practice whenever I get the time.” Aside of the forthcoming performance, she looks to juggle many things at a time. “I will be travelling to Indonesia this year to attend a comprehensive course on belly dance with a focus on its history. I really love the historical aspect of the subject because it reminds you of how much you don’t know.”
