Sri Valli Thirumanam Backstage Revelation (Losing Oneself In Dance). By Kamini Manikam
REFLECTIONS: ‘Sri Valli Thirumanam’
“Ok…Let’s start!” And the show began at 7.45pm with the Artistic Director instructing the emcee to address the crowd.
I silently waited for my scene in the dressing room. As I sat in prayer, tears started to well up in my eyes. The lugubrious moments I encountered prior to this show flashed through my mind like a film running at high speed.
Tracing back to April… I danced for an hour in India with affliction due to unknowingly freezing my skin with an icepack wrapped around my aching knee.
The pain was further exacerbated with a broken silver anklet that kept piercing into my skin and causing bleeding.
Thereafter, my attempt to puree tomato soup caused me another scar when the hot pottage exploded out of the blender.
Spending needless time on applying scar creams assiduously, I struggled arduously to lose almost 7kg to play the role of a teenager (that’s half of my current age!).
Waiting in anticipation to dress up as Valli donning two costumes with one arriving from India just 2 days before the show, and that too, requiring major alteration.
So what happened to the other costume? The tailor had forgotten to include it in the shipment; his attempt to send it again using urgent courier service failed! (the parcel reached me only 2 days after the show).
A costume comprising colourful threaded blouse oddly matched with a sequined blue skirt, which I designed in 2015 and stitched for no valid purpose, became my saviour.
The eleventh-hour panics drained me emotionally; I slept the night before the show with a wrecked heart and weary-teary eyes.
“Kamini…are you ready?” An unknown human voice boorishly aborted the flashbacks.
My eyes were still shut, refusing to relinquish solitude. And suddenly I heard my inner voice loud and clear, “Everything that has occurred is related to the BODY. So why are you lamenting about the perishable? Forget the body. Forget the environment. Dance in ONENESS with the Supreme Energy”.
With an awakened mind and rekindled spirit, I walked out of the dressing room to get on stage.
And yes, I performed in emptiness without being bothered about the material ‘Self’, yet deeply immersed in the divine ‘Self’.
I walked back into the dressing room showered with eulogies from the audience. But no word of praise was lucid to me except for the words of my inner voice that kept chanting in my head. I felt liberated, blissful and enlightened!
My sufferings and the inevitable moments I encountered have taught me an invaluable lesson of life. LESS & LESS-ism towards attachment leads to MORE & MORE-ism of Love and Light!
LET GO and LET GOD!
With abunDANCE of LOVE,
Kamini Manikam
