Rapid-fire round

Patrick: Rapid-fire round: your favourite adavu? [apologies to any non-dancers, feel free to skip this question]

Karen: Tha hatha jam tari…no wait, I have neither favourites nor non-favourites, I approach them all equally - that’s the official answer!

Gaby: I think my favourite is the second series of part two steps in kuchipudi.

Karen: I like the adavus that have that kind of light and shade in it, the flowiness that’s combined with a sharp movement.

Patrick: Favourite dancers - who do you like watching?

Gaby: My gurus [laughs] No, but genuinely I enjoy seeing them dance. But that’s maybe too obvious, so besides them, I’d say Rama Vaidyanathan. I saw her dance, and I just cried. I wasn’t looking at someone doing gymnastics on stage, I was looking at someone telling me a story while at the same time performing a very graceful dance. And I was understanding her emotions, even though I didn’t understand a word of the song. I also like the Punyah dance company -  they are very gymnastic, so when I see them I do feel slightly sad that I will never be able to dance like that [laughter]. But when I see their shows I feel like I’m watching a traditional repertoire in a more modern way. I’ll say those two… But mainly my gurus!

Karen: I don’t have any favourites, I think, because if I’m in the right place, I love every dancer. If I’m watching something that makes me feel something, then they’re my favourite dancer in that moment. But even the most amazing dancer, if I’m not feeling it on the day, it doesn’t resonate with me.

Gaby: That’s a good answer, I do agree as well. But I’ve already committed to an answer, so I’m sticking with it!

Patrick: Favourite god or mythological story?

Karen: Mahishasura mardini. The Indian goddess created from all the male gods who threw in all the good parts to create someone capable of killing this buffalo demon. That’s pretty awesome.

Gaby: I’ve always felt very close to Ganesha. I think he’s quite universal, anyone can approach Ganesha and begin to understand Hinduism from that starting point. And recently I’ve tried to incorporate Durga a bit more. Initially I found her a bit scary, but once I studied a bit more, I found this element of fearlessness that she has, the things that men have been scared of in women, it’s good when we can channel that.

Karen: Sometimes we need that. To destroy the things that need to be destroyed. We can’t be the sweet Lakshmi all the time.

Patrick: Anything else you’d like to say?

Karen: We feel truly fortunate to do what we do. I mean, it’s hard, it’s challenging, but what a joyful thing to do and share. When I was four years old in school, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. The first time I was asked I said I wanted to be a princess. At some point I realised that maybe I couldn't be a princess. So after that I always said I wanted to be a dancer. But although it was my dream, I never thought it was going to be a reality. But here I am.

Gaby: We are very lucky, to be able to make our professions with this - even though I never know how to explain, when someone asks me what I do. Also, everything we said is from our experiences, there's nothing that is an undebatable truth. So it’s my personal experiences, the teachings of my teachers that I have taken on because they resonated with me - none of what we said will be every person’s experience. But I think doing this dance form has helped us to be less judgemental, because we have had to open ourselves to a different culture.