On August 25, 2013, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning in order to start a three and a half hour-long road trip from a hotel in Trivandrum to the rural village of Edapalayam in Kerala, India. The main purpose of this trip was to visit a school I had helped fund through a charity called “Dance for Everyone”. Although the excursion to the village would only take about a day, the preparations for this visit and the school itself had been years in the making.

While I was preparing for my bharatanatyam arangetram during the summer of 2011, my parents prompted me to think about donating the gift money to a charity of my choice. Not only would it save us hours of unpacking gifts, but, more importantly, all the hard work put into my arangetram could have a direct positive impact on a community. Considering that it was a dance performance, it was fitting that we ended up finding Dance for Everyone, a non-profit which was founded through the help of our family friend Don Perrault and was run by the directors of the Navarasa Dance Theatre in Boston.

I can remember very clearly that first meeting in 2011 with Don Perrault, Aparna Sindhoor, and Anil Natyaveda. It was raining outside as my parents and I sat in Panera Bread, drinking hot chocolate and trying to learn more about Dance for Everyone. Instead of our initial plan to start a school in Chennai, we decided that it would be more worthwhile to try and sustain what had recently been established in rural Kerala. We decided that the arangetram money I donated would help fund a teacher for the students and would also support two scholarships for selected dancers so that they would have the opportunity to study bharatanatyam under an acclaimed teacher of their choice.

To tell the truth, while I went along with the plan, it was not until this visit to the village that I really understood how my money was benefiting these children. I could comprehend what I was funding and I understood that it was so far successful, but it is always difficult to truly appreciate something without experiencing it first hand, which brings us back to the road trip this past summer.

So, while I was in India this August, I flew from Chennai to the airport nearest the school’s village. Early next morning we rented a car and set off. The roads to Edapalayam were terrible, and by the time we arrived I was feeling both tired and sick. The school building, which Dance for Everyone rented out for their classes, was small and long and painted a vivid blue with pictures of cartoon animals drawn on the side. There was a small courtyard outside the building, and the place was overall clean and bright.

When I entered the building, I was greeted by the sight of rows and rows of dance students waiting for my arrival. They ranged from four to sixteen years of age and were dressed either magenta or orange salwar-kameezes, with green dupatas tied around their waists. For the next hour or so, in spite of a power failure in the building, they demonstrated all the adavus, and even a couple of dances that they had learned. Despite the fact that most of the students had been learning for less than two years and that there was only one teacher, all of them appeared to be remarkably proficient dancers. At the end, I handed out the two scholarships, one to an older girl named Sneha, and the other to a younger one, Sinu, both of whom shyly addressed me as ‘teacher’. After this and some pictures with the students, we headed back.

I hate to use a trite phrase, but the trip to the Dance for Everyone school was truly eye-opening. Before visiting, I really could not appreciate what it meant to give money to the school and fund these students, but because of the trip I could see with my own eyes what the money could do for these dancers. Because of Dance for Everyone, these students are able to do something that I took for granted growing up: learning bharatanatyam. For me, going to dance class was always just a part of my life, my weekly routine. I took it for granted that I would continue my classes, have performances with my own costumes and jewelry, and eventually go on to complete my arangetram. But, for these students, none of that is guaranteed. Dance for Everyone allows these dancers to have these opportunities, and even take dance as far as they want it to go in their lives. It truly is a great cause, and I know that I will do my best to continue supporting it for as long as I can.

My hope for the future is that through Dance for Everyone, we can continue to fund and support the current school and teacher in Edapalayam, as well as create more branches. A short-term goal of mine is to provide dance costumes for all the students, and I plan on collecting some of my old dance outfits to send to Edapalayam. If you have any costumes you have outgrown and would like to donate, or any other questions about the Dance for Everyone project, please contact me at ananya.mdhingra@gmail.com.

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