Back in California
Havent posted in a while. We are back in California, enjoying the smog and hot weather here in the central valley and loving every minute of it.
I never realized how crowded the ERs are here. I just found that the average wait time in a california ER is a hundred minutes more than in Iowa. And people there think its bad!
Recently started teaching Bhangra (a folk dance from Punjab, India-usually performed my men) to a group of guys and girls at the university. That brought up a recurring question. Can girls really do bhangra? I know, the world is burning down around us, I am thinking-girls, bhangra yes or no? Hey, some things are just that important. I acutally got into it with my wife over this subject.
Then, I sat back and really examined my feelings about this. I guess overall, I still feel that Bhangra is done better by men, in the same way giddha is done better by women. Eventhough men perform 'malwai giddha', that is done with an emphasis on boliyan-the lyrics that drive the entire performance. The dance steps that the men do in Malwai giddha are not stylized in any fashion (as in bhangra, giddha) but rather just what ever each participant wishes to do. But, really, the reason I got angry when my wife suggested that girls can do it just as good, is likely, the percieved attack on a previously exclusive (punjabi) male bastion! In north america, a lot of teams are 'mixed' -meaning both men and women. I think its OK to appreciate the differences between men and women-everything is NOT and doesn't HAVE to be 'equal'. As a purist, I see that the performance of bhangra is changing because of this AND influence of the popular hip hop dance culture that surrounds the young US punjabis performing bhangra. I dont necessarily like it, but I am learning to accept it.
Having said that, I have also realized that the girls in my team, are more disciplined, make more effort and are more coordinated than a lot of the guys in the team. They frankly put a lot of the guys to shame! They cannot perform the steps the way that the steps are meant to be performed because it would look 'funny' and because I think of the underlying physical differences between male and female bodies. However, as the popularity of Bhangra performance grows among girls, I am sure there will be one day girls performing bhangra where it will be impossible to tell the difference between male and female dancers. I look forward to that day with interest and some trepidation. I will continue to teach bhangra from a purists view point with the ultimate goal to train good dancers who will pass it on to the next generation-be it men or women!
There is my spiel on this somewhat trivial subject in the big picture.
I never realized how crowded the ERs are here. I just found that the average wait time in a california ER is a hundred minutes more than in Iowa. And people there think its bad!
Recently started teaching Bhangra (a folk dance from Punjab, India-usually performed my men) to a group of guys and girls at the university. That brought up a recurring question. Can girls really do bhangra? I know, the world is burning down around us, I am thinking-girls, bhangra yes or no? Hey, some things are just that important. I acutally got into it with my wife over this subject.
Then, I sat back and really examined my feelings about this. I guess overall, I still feel that Bhangra is done better by men, in the same way giddha is done better by women. Eventhough men perform 'malwai giddha', that is done with an emphasis on boliyan-the lyrics that drive the entire performance. The dance steps that the men do in Malwai giddha are not stylized in any fashion (as in bhangra, giddha) but rather just what ever each participant wishes to do. But, really, the reason I got angry when my wife suggested that girls can do it just as good, is likely, the percieved attack on a previously exclusive (punjabi) male bastion! In north america, a lot of teams are 'mixed' -meaning both men and women. I think its OK to appreciate the differences between men and women-everything is NOT and doesn't HAVE to be 'equal'. As a purist, I see that the performance of bhangra is changing because of this AND influence of the popular hip hop dance culture that surrounds the young US punjabis performing bhangra. I dont necessarily like it, but I am learning to accept it.
Having said that, I have also realized that the girls in my team, are more disciplined, make more effort and are more coordinated than a lot of the guys in the team. They frankly put a lot of the guys to shame! They cannot perform the steps the way that the steps are meant to be performed because it would look 'funny' and because I think of the underlying physical differences between male and female bodies. However, as the popularity of Bhangra performance grows among girls, I am sure there will be one day girls performing bhangra where it will be impossible to tell the difference between male and female dancers. I look forward to that day with interest and some trepidation. I will continue to teach bhangra from a purists view point with the ultimate goal to train good dancers who will pass it on to the next generation-be it men or women!
There is my spiel on this somewhat trivial subject in the big picture.
posted by PaoBhangra at 9:06 AM
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