[applause] knew >> we are going to finish off a with [inaudible]. yeah. [applause]. [music playing].

>> [applause].

>> [applause].

[music] [applause]

good afternoon, everybody.

thank you for joining us today. the first thing i will ask you to do is put your hands together in front of our heart and bow slightly and say nanasta it means the good in me greets the good in all of you. who knows where is this is from? india. today we are sharing an form. we are members of the dance company based here in san francisco and we are taught by somebody who has been doing this art form for over 50 years much the ladies including myself we have been studying with him for a long time. you will see different things. lots of sounds with our feet. a little bit of story telling through mime and expression and

you will learn about math in dance. who would have thought. today we will start, our next piece means the coloring of the stage. dancers show the hindu aspect of the dance by using the positions of our hands we will show you we are decorating the stage and make a water picture and cleaning the stage with the water. plucking flowers and decorating the stage with the petals of the flowers. we will awaken the 5 senses through the blowing of a conch shell. we will demonstrate the 3 duty, creator, producer and the destroyer in order to make way for new creation.

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[applause] good morning. afternoon, actually. so, as you can see this is an

elaborate dance form and has many hand movements which have a specific meaning. in the piece we are about to show you and share with you we will actually pi lly teach you d movements. this means to tell a story. in old times they would travel and tell the stores about the events of the timeses. i need you all to stand up to learn these. excellent. take a stretch. lift our arms up high to the sky. we will start by creating trees. we will turn our arms into tree branches. our finger tips into leaves and we will sway in the breeze. when the wind picks up we will sway faster. we will make birds by taking our

hands facing etch other, cross our thumbs and using our hands like bird wings. the birds are flying high above the treetops. in the forest is a river. we will lift our wrists and lower them to make water waves. very soft. you can hear the water flowing. in this river are fish. we will take the right hand over our left and use our thumbs like fish fins and let your fish swim through the water it takes a big dive. >> and growing next to the river are a bed of flowers. opening one hand onfinger at a time watching the flower petal blossoms. we will take our other hand and turn it into a butterifiy much