Anusha Murthy visited Greenhill to teach the Bollywood dance style to students in the Greenhill Dance Company, Dance for Athletes class and Middle School Dance class on Jan. 24 and 25.
Murthy, who had been recommended to Middle and Upper School Dance Teacher Kelly McCain by a friend, came in on Thursday and Friday to lead three classes.
“Getting to work with different teachers is always important,” McCain said. “[Students] learn different teaching styles and different things are emphasized.”
Murthy began her lesson with a dynamic warmup and stretches. She introduced students to the moves she would be using in the dance, before teaching a combination dance to Bollywood music.
The students learned the piece in small sections before putting it all together. At the end of the classes, McCain recorded the students to show her other classes, allowing many students to be exposed to Bollywood dance.
“I’m impressed with myself and the rest of the dance company for how quickly and confidently we learned the dance, and how we were able to perform it,” freshman Taliana Berrelez said.
McCain says she appreciates Greenhill’s Cultural Arts Committee for funding and allowing different guest teachers. She hopes that her students gain a new appreciation for dance from seeing different instructors.
“I want to try to expose people to different styles of dance that they might not get otherwise,” McCain said.
Students say they had many positive takeaways from this experience.
“I really appreciated it because it was part of my culture,” freshman Nirvan Bhattacharya said. “I was happy that they were doing that in school.”
