ARANGETRAM DANCES
Bharatnatyam is a classical Indian dance form from South India and its origin is traced to more than 3000 years ago to Natya Shastra by Bharata. Bharathanatyam combines "Bhavam" meaning expression, "ragam" meaning medium, "thalam" meaning rhythm and natayam meaning dance.
Arangetram is the on-stage performance of a former student of Indian classical dance and music. This first performance follows years of training. Many Indian classical dance forms perform an arangetram once the time has come for a disciple.
The word arangetram is from the Tamil language and means ascending the stage by a dancer on the completion of formal training. The dancer can now move forward and pass on the art form to other aspiring learners of the art. It is also called Rangapravesha in Kannada.
Mihika and Ruhika are excited to be bringing this arangetram to you all and are using this as a platform to raise funds towards underpriviledged kids and also COVID-19 help for frontline workers in India and USA. This arangetram is special to them because this helps them to be in touch with both their Tamil and Kannada roots.
PROGRAM DETAILS
We thank everyone for attending the "Global Virtual Arangetram" for Mihika and Ruhika. We were grateful to share this with 110+ families live at the same time across 4 continents. Thanks to technology, our friends and family who missed it today can attend it at their leisure by going to the link below:
For those of you who can watch YouTube on your television sets, you can do one of the following to watch on YouTube:
Stream on your mobile and turn on screen mirroring with your TV so you can watch it there.
On your smart TV or devices like Roku, open the YouTube application and search for “Mihika Ruhika Arangetram” or “Mihi Ruhi Arangetram”. The results will have the link to the video streaming.
Click on the link on your mobile phone and throw YouTube on your TV (you will need to be logged in the same account on your phone and TV for this).
We tried our best to make it closest to the real experience.
As such, you will see details on the website at
Program Brochure - https://www.ruhi-mihi.com/the-dances.
Please take some time to sign the guestbook so we can manifest your wishes in a physical guestbook that the girls will treasure throughout their lives.
https://www.ruhi-mihi.com/guestbook
Some interesting details:
Program “stage” was setup in our basement by Srikanth, myself and the girls. The area is 18 ft (L) by 15 ft (W) by 10 ft (H) and we ordered 20 yards of black cloth for it.
The “sky” is made by a single piece of satin cloth over 400 sq. ft in area, that Kavi’s School of Dance used for a dance choreography. It was put up by Srikanth with no nails or pins (just very large knots!)
We had to line the non-stick carpet with two layers of thick carpets, faux lawn and non-stick pads, as this dance form has very heavy “steps” and the girls’ feet were swollen within 2 hours of practicing here.
We were not sure if we would receive the costumes as our uncle, Ramesh Mama, who was supposed to carry the costumes from India, was stuck there till early June because of quarantine. So we decided to go ahead only in June!
The music for this was pre-recorded in a studio in Bangalore with help from Vidushri Rohini Imarati and the music ensemble (in coordination with Vidushri Kavita Thotakura and Vidushri Aishwarya Puranik), and this is the only reason we could even go ahead (usually there is a live music ensemble for arangetrams and if we had gone down that route, this would not have been possible).
Thank you and enjoy!