Hello!

It's admittedly been a quiet couple of months on the newsletter front.

In terms of dance life, back in September I decided I was ready to venture back to the studio again. I usually train at my local gym as they have fantastic studio space that is empty for large chunks of the day when there aren't any classes.

I'd not been to the studio for 6 months, and I knew I would have lost a lot of stamina and strength as I'm not able to dance 'properly' at home in my flat. Odissi is loud with its high impact footwork, so in my home environment there is always a feeling of holding back to not disturb my neighbours.

We really ground ourselves with our feet in this dance, and the dynamic stamping, which reverberates through our bodies, plays a large part in shaping the form.

So I can confirm that I had lost a lot of stamina and strength! And as anyone who is involved in any kind of physical practice will know, these things take a long time to build and a short time to lose.

So began the process of building my stamina back up. I had a couple of false starts, but by mid October I felt like I was starting to step back into my odissi body again, which was such a wonderful feeling. Just a couple more sessions away from a baseline level of fitness that could actually deliver dance choreographies with a sense of life and narrative, rather than just struggling to keep up towards the end!

And then there we have it - the UK's second full lockdown and the gyms are closed again.

It's disappointing but also it's ok. There are not many predictions we can make at the moment about how life is going to look from one month to the next. And there is a lot of other work to be done that doesn't involve the studio. I'm not worried about not having enough to do in the meantime, and my body is here, healthy and ready to be trained again when the time comes. Happy to give thanks for that!

I'll keep the newsletter short and sweet for this month. It really has been a quiet time for me!

Thank you for reading.

Hoping you are all safe, happy and well.

Speak soon,
Maryam <3

Non dance related - when I went to Hedingham Castle in Essex in early October - one of Europe's best surviving Norman castles. 900 years old!