Live Well: Colorado Springs dance school offers east Indian classical dance, more
With their painstaking, precise movements, the women look like Hindu statues of goddesses come to life.
Barefoot and clad in yoga gear and flowery, flowing pants, five women and one child assemble in one corner of the warm, bright studio in Red Crags Arts and Architectural House in Manitou Springs. Dance instructor AuroTejas Hemsell settles in against the far wall to watch her students perform Odissi, an east Indian dance they plan to perform later in the year.
As the beats play, the dancers slowly move forward, carefully placing each foot at an angle while bending their knees. Their arms make angles, hands reaching to the sky, fingertips lightly touching in various mudras, or hand gestures. Hemsell encourages them to keep their eyes lifted toward the heavens.
“I describe it (Odissi) as a martial art dance. A dance yoga,” Hemsell said. “All styles of classical dance in India are disciplined dances you could equate to ballet because it’s so intense on the body. Whenever I have ballet dancers as students, they pick it up fast because of the similar postures of the legs.”
Eastern Indian classical dance is one of eight classical styles from India. Stretching back thousands of years to the second century B.C., the sacred and ancient dance was first performed as an offering to gods in temples. It might even be older, as there are cave etchings of the dance that date back before that. This is the dance carved into the temples in India, Hemsell says.
International dance artist AuroTejas Hemsell founded Shakti Dance School two decades ago in Colorado Springs and now teaches a variety of classes, including Odissi. The east Indian classical dance style stretches back to the second century B.C. when dancers performed the sacred and ancient dance as an offering to gods in temples. Courtesy AuroTejas Hemsell
It was wiped out by the British when they invaded India in 1858, but kept alive in the lineage of families and revived by Indian dance gurus in the ‘60s after India regained independence in 1943.
Hemsell, the founder of Shakti Dance School, offers four classes throughout the month at Red Crags: Bollywood, a semi-classical dance that’s less technical than Odissi, but also includes mudras and eye movements; men’s stretching; Odissi east Indian; and Zumba fitness. Classes are $15 and drop-ins are welcome. Odissi is the first and third Wednesdays from 5-6 p.m.
Born in Auroville, India, Hemsell began ballet at 3. Because her father was American and her mother Indian, the family traveled back and forth between the two countries. When she was 5, she saw a south Indian classical dance performer in Texas and knew there was no going back to ballet. She returned to India and began to study. A decade later she switched to Odissi, which she calls a physically intense style, but one anybody can do.
“It goes slow,” she said. “Even if you’ve never danced before it’s a good class because it’s very specific. It’s not a style where you improv or have to know a lot. You’re taught every single posture and movement specifically. You can’t mess it up.”
International dance artist AuroTejas Hemsell teaches a variety of classes, including Odissi, an east Indian classical dance style. Courtesy AuroTejas Hemsell
While continuing to study dance with her gurus in India, Hemsell started her dance school in the U.S. in 2004 and began teaching and performing in world dance festivals across the world. Ten years ago she relocated permanently to the U.S.
“I’m focused on bringing culture to Colorado Springs,” she said. “It’s important. It’s a place that doesn’t have enough culture. My dream is to bring cultural education to places that need it. The Midwest still needs more culture.”
Odissi, while considered a spiritual dance, can be for everyone, regardless of religious background.
“It’s a disciplined art form,” Hemsell said. “Once people try it, they are really into it. If a person is open to Hinduism, no problem, but sometimes people just want the discipline of the movements.”
Contact the writer: 636-0270
Shakti Dance School: stretching, postures and mudras, 5-6 p.m. first and third Tuesdays; men’s stretching, 5-6 p.m. second and fourth Tuesdays; Odissi East Indian, 5-6 p.m. first and third Wednesdays; Zumba fitness, 5-6 p.m. second and fourth Wednesdays, Red Crags Arts and Agriculture House, 302 El Paso Blvd. Manitou Springs, $15 drop-in; 719-425-7596, smokebrush.org
International dance artist AuroTejas Hemsell founded Shakti Dance School two decades ago in Colorado Springs and now teaches a variety of classes, including Odissi.
AuroTejas Hemsell teaches four classes, including Bollywood and Odissi, an east Indian classical dance style, at Red Crags Arts and Architectural House in Manitou Springs.