Joshi

Name: Keya Joshi

Guiding Question: Would I like to pursue Indian dance in the future (i.e. in college clubs, after college etc.)

(optional) Use this space to list possible activities, tasks, experiences. Remember everything you do should help you answer your Guiding Question. -Watch Indian Movies to see fusion in the film (older films---older dances vs new filmsmodern fusion) -Go to dance class two times a week -Go to either NYC or New Jersey to view Indian Dance performances

(Required) This plan is a “best guess” as to what you and your mentor think you will be doing. It is not meant to be a hard and fast schedule for your Exploration. The plan should illustrate how you intend to complete a minimum of 80 hours.


 * = Date ||= Location/Activity ||= Number of Hours ||
 * = 4/26 ||= Dance Studio/ Bollywood Fusion ||= 3 ||
 * = 4/27 ||= Home/ Watch Devdas ||= 4 ||
 * = 4/27 ||= Home/ Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 4/28 ||= Home/ Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 4/29 ||= Dance Studio / Bollywood Inter. ||= 3 ||
 * = 4/30 ||= Home/ Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/1 ||= Home / Watch Dostana ||= 4 ||
 * = 5/1 ||= Home/ Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/2 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/3 ||= Dance Studio/ Bollywood Fusion ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/4 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/5 ||= Home / Watch Joda Akbar ||= 4 ||
 * = 5/6 ||= Dance Studio/ Bollywood Inter. ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/7 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/8 ||= Home / Watch Mohabbatein ||= 4 ||
 * = 5/8 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/9 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/10 ||= Dance Studio/ Bollywood Fusion ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/11 ||= Home/ Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/12 ||= Home / Watch Meera ||= 4 ||
 * = 5/13 ||= Dance Studio / Bollywood Inter. ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/14 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/15 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/16 ||= Home / Watch Umrao Jaan ||= 4 ||
 * = 5/17 ||= Dance Studio / Bollywood Fusion ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/18 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/19 ||= Home / Practice ||= .5 ||
 * = 5/20 ||= Dance Studio / Bollywood Inter ||= 3 ||
 * = 5/21-5/22 ||= Trip to NYC or NJ to view performance ||= 30 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 85 ||

Journal: May 19, 2011.

My plan of action has been going really well. The only change is that I have not been practicing because I have not learned a dance yet. I will be doing that soon. For the past three weeks, I have been exploring Indian dance in many ways. Every Sunday, for the past two seeks I have been going to the dance studio for 4 hours and just watching the dancers perform. For the past couple of weeks, the dancers have been preparing for a competition, "An Evening in Bollywood" which is going to be performed in the Grand Opera house this Sunday. The slight deviation from the original plan, is that I did not attend the tuesday and friday classes, but just went to a condensed class on Sunday. Every Sunday, for the past couple of weeks, I have been watching a group of high school girls perform the song, "Sheila Ki Jawani" and other, more classical Indian dances. It has been really interesting to see the formation of the dance, and last week, finally seeing the outcome of the dance. I have also, for the past three weeks, watched a lot of Indian movies with dance in them. I wanted to make sure I watched movies from different time periods (i.e. made in the fifties vs the millennium) to see how the type of dance has evolved. I have watched Devdas, Dostana, Meera, Umrao Jaan and Joda Akbar. It was very clear how the dance has changed and it was exciting to watch the faster steps of modern day Indian dance. Another way I have added to my learning experience is watching different Indian dance groups on youtube. For this week alone, I have spent over 8 hours on youtube just watching the dances (it is quite addicting) and I spent 4 hours this past Sunday at the studio and watched 4 hours watching the movie Joda Akbar. This gives me a total of 16 hours. For the past three weeks, I have watched over 16 hours of Indian movies, 8 hours in the dance studio, and over 15 hours watching youtube videos of popular Indian songs and watching dance groups. That gives me a total of 39 hours. So up until this point I have completed 55 hours. These next two weeks, I am actually going to learn how to perform a dance. On tuesday, I will be taking a private lesson with my mentor to learn a Bhangara, a fast paced dance. I am quite close to answering my Guiding Question, I am enjoying the experience.

I feel as though my experience has been a positive one so far. I have explored Indian dance in many different ways and I believe that this all rounded view has only shown Indian dance in a positive way. I am just very nervous to actually learn the dance. I have no prior dance experience (except for ballet when I was 4 and gymnastics until I was 8) so it will be quite interesting to see how the experience turns out.

May 28, 2011.

This week was a very fun and exciting week for me. Up until this point, I had only been participating in group lessons at the dance studio. This past tuesday, I went to my instructor, Nisha's, house and there she taught me a dance which I hope to use in my presentation as an interactive experience. It is called the bhangra, a dance that is considered a punjabi style. It was very lively and upbeat. In this one on one lesson, she also taught me about he origins of modern Indian dance. It was very interesting to learn. This week I watched Mohabbatein and went on youtube for a couple hours. Since I actually learned a dance, I have been practicing that as well.

This experience has been a fun one and I am glad I chose something more fun for my senior exploration.

Hours this week: 10 Total hours: 65.

June 2, 2011.

This week I focused on learning about the history of Indian dance and the origin of Bollywood modern dance. I went to the library and I looked at different books about Indian dance, ranging from children's picture books to more detailed books. I also talked to NIsha, my advisor about the origination of Indian dance. I practiced my Indian dance, the one which I hope to show as an interactive experience in my presentation, a few times. I also went on youtube again and tried to look at different types of modern dance in different regions.

These past few weeks have been really eye opening for me. Even though I thought I was well-versed in Indian culture, I was lacking in this element: dance. It was really fun to see the traditional dance (in the group experience) and then look at modern dance (the one-on-one lesson).

Hours this week: 12 Total hours: 77.

(this weekend I will be watching two movies for a total of 8 hours which will give me a grand total of 85 hours).

REFLECTIONS:

For my guiding question I asked " would I want to pursue Indian dance in the future (i.e. college clubs, etc.) and for a response I would say yes, I would really enjoy to pursue Indian dance in the future. I even did some research and I found that Hopkins has an Indian dance group called Josh (my last name without an i!) I looked at some of their videos on youtube and they have exactly what I would want to do. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTY3HmjEWFg) I think that I would want to pursue Indian dance in the future because it is not only fun, but it is very interesting to see the old school dance moves combined with the new ones. How I came to this conclusion with my mentor, was when she was describing the dance to me. She told me of the evolution of the dance and she explained her own path into dance. After discussing her on path to dance, I realized it was possible to continue it in the future.