Make-up for Dancers

I was talking to my friend when i realized that many dancers find it very difficult to apply make-up for a program. Main reasons being, tension, no time, and there is always a chance to ruin it by yourself!! 

so i thought i would help them, the little i can do is writing how to apply make up for dance. 

Primarily one needs the dance make up accessories :

1. Base/ Panc cake -- 25-27 for Indians and 21-23 for foreigners. 

2. Second base - Panc stick  -- Numbers same as above. 

3. Rose powder

4. Eye shadow - Pink, gold

5. Kajal - Thick (niki)

6. Lip stick (red / maroon)

7. Blush

8. Bindi 

9. Brushes : For Blush (thick), Kajal, Eye brow, lip liner, lip stick. 

10. Sponge (preferably in conical shape)  

11. Nose cut - Dark brown powder/base

P.S. I prefer 'Mi-Fi' products especially the base for dance make-up. 

People in Chennai will get these at Shanti Tailors, Mylapore. At Bangalore you will get these in Raja Market, Chicpet, or bhavani stores in jayanagar / Malleswaram 8th Block. 

Procedure to apply : 

1. Firstly, keep a bowl of water. Wet the sponge and wet your face. 
2. Now take the foundation and evenly spread across your face, neck, back side of the neck. 
3. With the wet sponge, take some Base 2, and apply evenly on the face. 
4. Dry the face with a help of hand fan. 
5. Now apply the rose powder. 
6. Apply pink eye shadow above the eyes 
7. Now apply gold eye shadow in a thin line just below your eyebrow. Make sure the pink and gold are not seen separately, if so, then smudge them together using the brush. 
8. Now draw your eyebrows - make it look like a arch. ( best results are found if you do threading of your eye-brow) if not, then you can cover the eye brow with the help of spirit/ gum (used on face) and   after the spirit dries, apply the skin colour or gold colour eye shadow on the eye brow. Now you can draw eye-brow in the shape you desire. 
9. Keep the eye-brow thin. 
10. Now the most important is the eye! Draw it thin in the beginning of the eye .ie. near the nose and gradually make it thick near the ending. Draw an extend and make this look thick and big, but Never cross the eye-brow line. 
11. Draw a small line like a pencil tip in the beginning of the eye near the nose to give the eyes a fish shaped look. 
12. Now give a nose cut with the dark base/powder. Draw the nose dark on either sides and make the front and tip of the nose sharp and bright with the help of the regular base. This will make it look sharp and neat. 
13. With the help of the eye/kajal brush, draw the lip-liner. Do not worry about the black colour liner. it will look great on stage. Shape the lip well. Make the lower lip thin and upper lip a little thick, this will give a spout look. 
14. Now colour your lip with lip stick in red or maroon. 
15. You are almost done! Just give a good blush on your cheek and if possible glitter. 
16. Coming to the bindi - depending on the style of dance the shape changes! But always use extra spirit/ gum to your bindi so it doesn't fall while dancing due to sweat! Also, give a white and black lining. This enhances the brightness of the face. 

Now, you look fabulous!! Before trying it on stage directly you can always try this at home when at leisure. 

This might take 20 minutes to half hour. Its worth trying than paying the money for the make-up person or beautician. 

Keep smiling while you dance.  

The recent show at Senior Citizen's Resorts was such a divine and blissful experience. I have experienced a unique joy while dancing for the group of old and aged people but very young at heart. They had the will and patience to do so many things that which is absent in many of us. 

It was on the night of Sivarathri and the auspicious day only enhanced the joy of dancing. 

Thanks to my mom who gave me the idea of dancing on that day in the location.  

After the performance, i went to a temple in Chennai, called Madhya Kailash. A well known temple at the heart of the city. A few young budding artists were singing for the lord through the night. Young students in their grads and also pursuing such creative arts which takes most of your time! They sang to the glory of the Lord Shiv, who enchants the world with His Cosmic Dance. It was a refreshing experience to watch so many young artists singing so well. 

I was impressed on the people who were arranging the whole event. They were young students as well. A group named Youth Association for Classical Music, (www.yacm.com) conducted and is giving chance to artists members who have the talent and ability to sing well. They also pay you a minimal fee for your contribution. I am impressed, in this world were you have to pay to perform, where you need to  beg an organisation to give you the one chance (which apparently might or might not assure you further more, because they donot have that kind of an audience), this organisation was one damn good thing. 

Run my one the senior student of Sri. TM Krishna, named Rithvik Raja. Kudos to you and the entire team! Raghunandan on vocal stole the show! 

I wouls suggest, anybody who wants to contribute monetarily to an art form, they could donate to this organisation, they are doing a wonderful job.  

Well, one can find that being an artist is not that easy at all! 

One needs to hunt for a chance to perform and steal the show and then show people you have performed on that platform and keep improving everyday so you can be in business!! Ouch... a lot of hardwork! The best part is that it gives immense pleasure and comes automatically without frustration to work! 

Every time i begin to write, alas, i always presume the topic is vain and so i erase it all. 

Now i have finally decided to write... I was chatting on Fb with my cousin, gayathri, she suggested why not write something on ' why one should smile on stage while performing'. I thought, a good one to start with, so i penning down my views on this. 

Infact as she mentioned, many dancers are not smiling for that has become a fashionable thing to do. In fact i have myself tried it! alas, of only getting comments as, 'she became tired while dancing' or 'why were you so serious', 'probably you dint enjoy as much as we did'...!!! but hey i was only trying out something fashionable! 

Well, many famous and well known dancer smile only occasionally, I personally it looks fabulous on them! It brings energy to the movements and grip to the dance. But definitely not every dancer can carry that off. 

Let us begin with the first piece, an invocatory piece. Here, you appear first time to the audience, so one must smile and be pleasant to welcome them to stay through your show. You must make sure, they are tied to their seats, and this is possible only when the welcome drink is worthy enough to hang around there! 

So, smile, flaunt your 32 teeth and make the piece as gripping and crisp as possible. 

Then we move on to the next, which might be a sloka or verse from any old litreture, a keerthana or swarajathi... here smile suitable to the bhava but just hold on to the energy.. because audience have to stay put till the end. Smile and smile a lot. Let them know you are enjoying yourself. and you are capable to take them along. 

The important now enters.. the varnam. Here, it is very significant for a dancer to hold the sthayi bhava and yet to the abhinaya according to the sanchari and also bring in the nritta jathis interwoven with it! Wow, what a task! This calls for rigorous practice. Smile again, when ever necessary! For instance, when you are talkin to a sakhi asking her to do the favour, you better smile and let her know that you like her a lot and thats why making her an important messenger. and when you are showing her that you are angry on the nayaka, do not show her the real anger, let a tiny bit of your smile remain. When doing the jathi/theernaman/nritta portion, you start with the holding the sthayi bhava on your face and gradually indulge in your nritta and when you are about to end the jathi with mukthayi, let it speak a little about the bhava or when you are doing the arudhi, bring in the sthayi so as to connect it well with the next verse. Do not forget to retain the smile during the nritta. 

Following suit is a padam/ javali... well.. abhinaya is in the fore and ofcourse i can not write how to express! 

The final thillana.... happy ending is always the indian way of completing things. take home the happy stuff... so thillana needs the most energy and the biggest smile. 

In case you want to complete with a sad not, not a problem, its the titanic way. But make sure you come back on stage just to say a thank or pranam with a beautiful smile... it only enhances the sadness of your last item and also makes them think that you have achieved something! 

Smile ever...