Day One

Today was our first day of work. A working day consists of 8.30-9.30 Yoga then a chai break, then 10 until lunch working with the Director. As the show format has changed it's all been
a little all over the place in terms of what is required of us, but we're quickly getting a better idea of what we're meant to be doing. The Darpana dancers' focus is also not always completely fixed on the project as it's so far away (2013) and they have so many other things they are working on so this makes them very hard to pin down! However, they're brilliant to work with, lovely people and great fun, so it's currently very relaxed. So from 10-1 we did various drama exercises and I worked a bit on the silks today with Papin (Puja, who also does silks, will be back on Friday). Before I came to Darpana I was under the impression that Papin, who performed using silks in Tim Supple's Midsummer Night's Dream knew a lot but it turns out his knowledge of actual aerial silks is very basic and he was expecting me to teach him which was a little daunting! I came expecting to learn and not to teach. However, even if I can't learn aerial technique I can certainly learn the ability to turn what I know into a dance from working with him; he's an incredible dancer.

In 30 mins I rattled through a few things, but it was a bit all over the place due to my lack of preperation and time, so on Friday I want to have a fixed hour with him (and hopefully Puja and another dancer Manoj) doing conditioning then sharing a couple of moves and then stretching. I have a feeling Puja will be of the same level as Papin, but I'll be happy if she knows more as I didn't expect to be seen as a teacher. Manoj has done a hoop piece and is interested in silks and he will be great to work with too. They also have a hoop they want to rig up so I'm pretty excited about going on that and I think it will help with conditioning as sometimes moving straight to silks can be a little bit difficult.

Indira and I went to the market today. It's called Teen Dalwaja which means three gates. It's not specifically a food one, but sells pretty much everything else. It was MAD! Everywhere you go it's "Hi", "Hello M'am. What do you want?" (as if whatever it is they'll have it) "From what country?" "Hi, Hello, How are you...." etc etc etc. Indira and I are getting a LOT of attention being young, white, blond and female.

It's exhausting.

The family who stay next to our house that "looks after us" are
the Gardener and his wife, Kumari, and their 3 children who are 15 (Rahul), 11 (Keiran) and 8 (Rohan). Rohan sits with us every evening as he's learning english at school, colouring or playing with his sticker book. The family have been here since I came the first time. Darpana have paid Kumari extra to cook for us so most nights, unless we want something other than food, we have her cooking. And she makes us chai. It's a bit odd, but quite nice after a full on day which is every day so far...but it is only day 2 or full day 1.