PechaKucha

PechaKucha comes from Japan.
It means to “chatter”.
You have 20 images and 20 secs to talk about each image. That’s it. Say what you need to say in exactly 6mins and 40 secs.
I’ve just come back from my first PechaKucha night where the topic I presented was “Love to Dance“. Now, for someone who loves to talk, 20 secs an image was really not enough! But that’s what’s so great about PechaKucha. It forces you to be concise, to the point and to cut out the waffle….So here are the images I chose – and what I said:

My first dance class

I Love to Dance!At 3 I attended my first dance class.
It was my mum’s dream to dance – she wasn’t able to as a child – her parents couldn’t afford dance classes for her.
So she lived her dream through me.My first dance performance

My first performance.
I loved it – The dressing up.The make-up. The bells on my feet. Being Centre of Attention.
A Girl’s Dream!For me it was the start of my Love to Dance! Graduation - Arangetram at 16
At 16 I did my dance graduation in South Indian Classical Dance – Bharata Natyam.
Musicians flown in from India.
Saris and temple jewellery made specially for the occasion.
Performance in front of 450 people.
It was like getting married.
Married to dance that is!

It can be used to depict beauty, full moon, basket.

People from all walks of life, with all different fitness levels come to my classes.It’s about trying something different, getting fit – whilst having fun.

A group of women aged 25 – 55 have set up Saffire Dance.Since the start of this year they have performed at charity and community events and Celebrating Surrey at Losely Park.

I’m a board member of StopGAP – a contemporary dance company consisting of dancers with and without disabilities.
Here they are performing with young people with disabilities at Celebrating Surrey in June 2010.It really is about integration!

In 2008 I worked with schools in inner city London.Wow! That was a tough assignement!
Somehow, we managed to galvanise the children into performing on the streets of London.The children walked from St Mary-le-Bow Church to St Pauls Cathedral where they performed a Bhangra routine on the West Steps!

In 2008 I took an Indian Contemporary Dance show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.In the evenings we performed.During the day we promoted the show by doing street performances.Here I am performing in a shop window – not just any window – but John Lewis!

The Scoop in London – just outside the Mayor’s office has always been one of my favourite places to perform and lead workshops.With Tower Bridge in the background, it really is very special!

At the Scoop, you get to dance with people of all ages, nationalities, backgrounds!Some are tourists, some on their lunch break from work, some are spending their day up in London with family and friends, some live just round the corner!

Every year I pick on people in the crowd and encourage them to join us on the dance floor.This year is was all men in green shirts – there seemed to be a lot there that day!The man in this photo in the green shirt was really hesitant at first. But then, I couldn’t get him off the dance floor!He just loved dancing!

Even audience members can’t help getting involved!It doesn’t matter what age, what your ability.If the music is good, you can’t help but smile, tap your feet and even do some bhangra!-as these ladies showed us on that day!

The lovely thing about dance is that it is open to everyone.In this photo, a child, a woman and a man – all unrelated – are dancing – concentrating – smiling!Dance knows no barriers.

One of my favourite images!
This young boy was listening, participating, completely in time with the music.He can barely hold the sticks!Even surrounded by adults so much bigger than him – he was unfazed!

I recently launched Just Jhoom! a Bollywood Dance-Fitness Programme.This gentleman attended the launch and was very enthusiatically participating.However, towards the end he had to sit down and remove his shoes – and cool down.He looked exhausted – but came and told me at he end just how much he had enjoyed dancing!

I Love to DanceI’m priviledged that I’ve met all these people – sometimes only fleetingly and shared with them my passion to dance.I look at these images and it makes me happy to think that there are a lot of people out there, like me, who Love to Dance.

2 Replies to “PechaKucha”

  1. Salisha

    Love this concept – it is way too neat. Will have to remember it next time there’s some sort of presentation thing going on. And loved the story you told too.

    Reply

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