A 17-year-old girl, Zhang Jiayun, has become the second Chinese student to perform ‘Arangetram’, a traditional solo debut in Bharatanatyam.
She performed at an auditorium with a large gathering in Beijing on Friday. India’s Deputy Ambassador Abhishek Shukla and popular Chinese Bharatanatyam dancer Jin Shan Shan also marked the event.
After the performance, Zhang hugged her teacher, with tears of happiness and said, “It was a tough task for the past five years to prepare for Arangetram, practicing for five hours a day.”
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A 17-year-old Chinese student wowed everyone with her solo ‘Bharatanatyam dance’ in Beijing, China. pic.twitter.com/XgGgymGjei
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Arangetram marks a student’s first official stage appearance in front of her teachers, experts, and peers and allows the students to perform independently or train others.
Zhang began her Bharatanatyam classes when she was only five years old and joined Jin’s school at the age of 12. She has become the second Chinese student to perform Arangetram after 13-year-old Lei Muzi, who performed the dance style for the first time in front of India’s acclaimed Bharatanatyam performer Leila Samson, Jin’s own guru.
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Jin Shan Shan studied at the prestigious Kalakshetra Foundation has been teaching and promoting Bharatanatyam in China. Currently, she is teaching at the Indian Embassy’s Vivekananda Cultural Centre in Beijing and teaching over 100 students, some for more than a decade. “Two new groups of beginners have also recently started training,” she noted. She further added that students are often taken to India for gaining expertise.
