Finally! Our Yakshagana

​Our 10 hours of practice finally paid off! On our last night in Heranjal, we performed a section from the Yakshagana for our homestay families, the villagers, and others from near by who decided heard about the show through word of mouth…or possibly from huge poster with a printed picture of us hanging at the town limits inviting people to join in the celebration!

We woke up a bit earlier on the morning of the dance to start the final preparations/practice. We rehearsed for an hour and immediately after practice (10 a.m.), our dance teacher left to start preparing the stage. 

Four o’clock came fast and we all arrived at the local school to start preparing for the dance. First we were caked in makeup for 30+ minutes. 

The artists mostly used their fingers to apply the makeup and we were all surprised when they started slapping our faces to put on the white foundation paint. In the hot humid weather, we were wrapped in layers and layers of hot clothing. When the drums started playing we knew it was our time. 

​We jumped into our dances!  Broken into small dance teams, the stage came to life.  Although hot and feeling heavy from the headdress, we danced our hearts out and had so much fun. When we finished we ran off stage hugging and celebrating our hard work. It was also great to watch some of the local young children perform during the break of our dancing 

The ending of the dance was bittersweet, as it was sad because it marked the last night with our homestays. It was so late that we didn’t have dinner with our homestays, but many of us found time to just sit with each other on the porch and enjoy the company across language and culture…

CLICK TO MAKE A DONATION FOR OUR FRIENDS AND HOSTS IN HERANJAL