March 1, 2009

The majority of the students woke up early to take the opportunity to engage in yoga and martial art classes. After that we, as usual, had a very delicious breakfast. Recently some students have been getting Ayurvedic massages. According to Hannah Levy, who got one of the rejuvenation and relaxation massages, says that “it wasn’t like any massage I’ve ever gotten before. The first step was to walk to the Holy Basil facility where these massages are done. You are asked to undress and wear a loincloth like outfit. I had two women conducting my massage. You are covered from head to toe in special ayurvedic oils. The oils used are meant to soak into your pores and heal you from the inside out while being relaxed. Once the actual rubbing portion is completed, you sit in a large steam box with your head out to sweat off some of the oils. The final step is to scrub yourself with a green mixture and to wash it off in a large bucket that you are given. The overall massage was very relaxing, and rejuvenating just as the name hints at.”
After breakfast, we headed to the University, Kerala Kalamandalam, and resumed our dance, music, and singing lessons. Today in dance class we learned all of the twenty-four mudras or key gestures that are used in Monhiyattam, Kaatakali, and Kuttyattam. We also began learning the verbal commands to the steps that we’ve been doing. After the morning class, the girls realized how each day dancing is becoming easier and easier. They are grasping the concepts faster and understanding the basics of Monhiyattam. It also may have helped that today was of the cooler days we’ve had here. (By cool we mean about 90 degrees)
After the first session of lessons we returned to the hotel with a bit of downtime and discovered how delicious the River Retreats milkshakes are. Our afternoon Monhiyattam class we were all more than exhausted from learning more mudras and a new adavukal (step), which was more than difficult to say the least. Some of the girls were able to have some Malayalam written in our journals, which was exciting! Once our afternoon class was finished we went shopping with our Monhiyattam teachers. They took us to a silk shop down the road from Kerala Kalamandalam. Let’s just say that it became a bit of a frenzy with all the girls finding ADORABLE cheap clothing. The rough average of money spent during this shopping frenzy was 1,500 rupees which is equivalent to about $35. The rest of our evening was filled with practicing our singing, dancing, drumming and resting up for another day of classes tomorrow!