Thoughts, by Brinda Guha:
Interviewing my mom for this project was insightful, surprising, frustrating and soothing all at once. Always a spitfire, and always prepared with a lived example, talking to my mother and teacher about the steps that brought her to this place today is an experience I will cherish forever. We talked about holding the container for creative work, negotiating inevitable differences in values, the process of being recruited into creative dance work and cross-training very different styles, the process of maintaining vigorous classical Kathak training while attending boarding school 4 hours away, and much more. She delicately talks about her family — her mother, father and 3 sisters — as well as the beginning stages of her choreography career. She reveals so much about her past dreams and the surprising pivots she had to take in order to enrich her experience as a community leader and second mother for so many South Asians in the tri-state area and for so many years. And most joyous for me? When she explains that the real juice of creativity is… having fun! And she confirmed that she is doing just that.
As a dance maker pursuing this line of work, I actually think about my mother’s influence on my career and ideology every day, and do a lot of negotiating with that information on my own. It is the joy of my life to figure out what is nature and what is nurture, what values are similar, what ideas differ, and how a teacher and student decide to talk about it. One thing is for certain – there is nobody like Malabika Guha. I sit with Ma all the time and exchange stories and thoughts, but I’m holding so much gratitude to the Performing Arts Legacy program for allowing me to bring intention and curiosity to this discussion in a way that can be archived, revisited, and explored for decades to come. Thank you to the entire team of PAL for uplifting the tireless work of community dance teachers and legacy builders everywhere. I saw it first-hand as a daughter and student – and now others will get to experience it, too.
Brinda Guha, www.brindaguha.com
