Princess Shahana: July 2011

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Dance Classes

Shahana started attending dance classes at our apartment, and man she's loving it. For starters we put her into 'Bollywood freestyle' because anything else would be too formal for her tender age.

She really has fun and is certainly the class favorite :) Here's a little sampler of what our baby has learnt!

GYAAN..

Source: wikipedia - Link

Shahana is an Indian classical raga.

In Carnatic Music, Shahana is janya of the 28th mela Harikambodhi. It is a vakra sampurna raga and an upanga raga characterised by soft, weighty sancharas. Emphasizing the rishabham, panchamam, dhaivatham, and shadjam lend particular beauty to this raga during alapana. Gandharam is seldom rendered flat, and should never be given prominence in an alapana. The same goes for nishadham; it is almost always rendered with gamakam. There is, however, one particular sancharam where it can be rendered without gamakam to beautiful effect; singing or playing S N D ,,, in the lower octave, as seen in Thyagaraja's composition Giripai Nelakonna, accentuates the raga's colors well. Other than that, the raga is typically rendered in accordance with the arohana and avarohana given in most music books. However, a word of caution; this raga requires many years of experience at both performing and listening to other artists to master. Though singing the raga may seem simple, perfectly rendering the many subtle, delicate phrases and gamakas calls for a more practiced hand.

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Another meaning - In urdu, the word "Shahana" also means aristocracy.