Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Drawing inspiration from dance

Graceful movements

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The meaning and lyrics of the background score rendering one of the popular tales of love and seduction from the Hindu mythology were effectively conveyed to the audience by V.R. Vandana through her sinuous movements, emotive facial expression and hand gestures.

Learning Mohiniyattom from the age of eight, Vandana, now a Plus Two student in Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School in the city, has been trained by her dance teacher to focus more on hand gestures and facial expressions to compensate for her congenital disability of growing up without a leg. And on Saturday, she proved how the absence of a limb has had little impact on her skills when she gave an awe-inspiring performance in front of an audience comprising Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed in connection with the inauguration of a self-employment programme for the physically challenged.

“I have never thought about my disability as a hindrance to learn dance,” said Vandana, who relies on an artificial limb for mobility when she is not dancing.

However, when it comes to certain dance steps that rely significantly on the coordinated movement of legs, she has been trained to improvise the steps to suit her limitations. The modification meant that she had to spend more time fine-tuning her facial expression as a substitute for conveying feelings of anger, seduction and compassion. “I try to make my eyes very expressive,” she explained.

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