Meet Suba — Portland’s Bharathanatyam Instructor Extraordinaire

Meet Suba: Our first Portland TeachStreeter!!

Subashini Ganesan might just be one of the most delightful folks you’ll ever meet. She may not quite be 5′ tall, but her energy and enthusiasm for life could overflow a stadium.

In addition, she’s also one of Portland’s finest dance instructors, and one of only a handful of professional dance instructors in the Northwest who teaches Bharathanatyam — or Indian classical dance.

Many people have a passion, but Suba is turning her passion into a profession. As one of our first TeachStreet teachers in Portland, we’re very excited to tell Suba’s story about how she is finally realizing the dream of a lifetime by starting her own dance studio: Natya Leela Academy.

About Bharathanatyam –

Bharathanatyam, the classical Indian dance form, (also spelled Bharatanatyam or Bharata Natyam) is not very prevalent, especially in the West. Bollywood movies (like Bombay Dreams) have made Indian dancing hip, but Suba says that although we may not realize it, all those hip-shaking moves have their roots in classical dance.

A video of Suba’s Bharathanatyam dancing –

Suba goes onto say that “Bollywood dancing as as different from classical dance as ballet is from line dancing.” In other words, Bollywood-like dancing is the village dance, the fun dancing, but classical Indian dances are codified and serious both in it’s practice and it’s tradition.

A video from Bombay Dreams –

So, what is Bharathanatyam you ask?

After a chat with Suba and a little web research, I learned that Bharathanatyam is a an ancient dance form developed in Southern India (primarily in the state of Tamil Nadu) over the past three thousand years. It has three main elements: bhava (facial expression), raga (melody) and tala (rhythm). Originally this dance was performed in Hindu temples as an offering to the Gods and eventually became a dance for royalty. Today it is one of the most famous and widely performed dance styles throughout all of India. Originally performed only by women, it now is performed by both male and female dancers to great acclaim around the word.

Here are a few more articles and websites if you’re interested in learning more about the ancient art form:

• http://www.artindia.net/bharata.html
• http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2861/Bharaeng.html
• http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/3155/bnatyam.html
• http://www.tamilnation.org/culture/dance/index.htm
• http://www.nadanam.com/bharatnatyam/b_intro.htm

How Suba learned to dance —

When Suba was four and growing up in Signapore, she attended her first dance class. Her mother brought her even though she was too young to officially join. However, you can’t keep a natural dancer sitting for long. After the first class, Suba sweet-talked her way into dancing with the older kids, and that was the beginning of a lifetime passion.

After a brief hiatus in her mid-twenties, Suba found herself returning to dancing with an even greater passion than before, and this time it was as a dance instructor.

Suba on teaching:

“Teaching helps me master the dance, so sometimes teaching is almost a selfish endeavor. Watching people getting into their own body awareness through dance and become empowered because of something I’ve taught them is really a priceless gift you receive as a teacher. People feel empowered because they’ve accomplished something difficult, something they didn’t think the could do at all, let alone do well.”

Some of Suba’s students at a recital.

Suba on starting a new business:

“This is my soul’s work, I’m 100% committed to it, even though being a business owner and a full time teacher is new to me and scary. ”

While Suba was talking I realized that she must feel the same way a lot of artists feel who also teach. She said, “Here’s this most intimate and strong part of me, and now I have to market it? Ugh… I mean, I can market others super well, but marketing myself is much harder.”

Suba has found that having mentors both in her dance life as well as in her business life have helped her achieve her goals. Her dance mentor “picks me up when I’m down or doubting myself as a teacher,” while her business mentors check in and advise Suba on various strategies, legal complications or business plan ideas.

Suba on finding new students and marketing:

When asked how she finds students currently, Suba says that her offline marketing consists mostly of postering coffee shops, dance centers, and yoga studios. Like many of the TeachStreet teachers we’ve spoken to, Suba also relies on word of mouth to get new students.

That’s one of the reasons why Suba is excited about TeachStreet. She already has a nice website herself, but TeachStreet is a place where she can request reviews and show off responses to help her build an online reputation that compliments her pre-existing website.

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So TeachStreeters, if you’ve been wanting to challenge yourself to learn something new, why not contact Subashini Ganesan about some of her upcoming dance classes and workshops? She may make you break a sweat learning new poses and footwork, but you’ve got our TeachStreet guarantee that the time you spend with this splendid instructor will be much enjoyed!

Good luck with the new studio Suba! Let us know how it goes.

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Subashini Ganesan teaches Bharathanatyam classes in Portland and Eugene, OR as well as occasional workshops in the Seattle area. Check out her TeachStreet profile for Portland dance classes or her own web site for the Natya Leela Academy.