Furthest thing from it, in fact! I was a card-carrying tomboy. Meaning I was always outside getting my clothes dirty, skinning my knees, riding my bike, my hair perpetually a mess. Definitely not a girlie-girl.

My afternoons as a kid were often spent playing sports with my older brother and the other neighborhood kids. Football, soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, ping-pong, even intricate little games we’d make up. (My brother clearly wanted a little brother and had to make do with me. Of course, I was all too happy to oblige.)

Dance classes never crossed my mind; I was too busy learning how to throw a spiral or sink a shot from half-court.

Starting at a young age, my brother and I would tag along with our dad to his pickup tennis matches in the park, and from there on in, tennis became one of our family’s central pastimes. By the time I got to high school, I was good enough to make the junior varsity tennis team as a freshman. And I started playing junior tournaments in the off-season.

Then, when I was 15, I started Bharata Natyam classes with Ms. Bindu Sundaram, a local Kalakshetra-trained graduate student. It was a bit of a fluke, actually. My parents came to know of the classes through another Indian family in town. They wanted to enroll their daughter in the classes and they asked my parents if they’d be interested in having me do them too.

“Sure, why not?” I think was my parents’ response. Not necessarily expecting a whole lot from it.

But I found I enjoyed the classes. And I was actually kind of good at it. I discovered I really liked moving my body in a completely different way from athletics. Exercising different muscles and joints. And I found my tennis training and conditioning had strengthened my body to be able to dance with power and coordination.

The grace? I needed to work on it.

As I moved through the school year, taking weekly dance classes, Bindu Aunty told me I had the potential to study dance at Kalakshetra myself if I wanted to. But within a year or so, she had plans to move away and get married. My dance studies ceased just as abruptly as they had begun.

I was a bit sad, yes, but being a busy teenager, it didn’t take long for me to move on. I left dance behind, focusing on tennis, marching band, choir, and piano instead. I finished high school, went on through college, law school, and into my career. Followed by marriage and kids.

Then dance unexpectedly re-entered my life.

When my daughter was 4, I was looking around for activities I could put her in that would teach her about Indian culture. Being biracial and growing up in America, I wanted her to have a place to go to understand her heritage. And I remembered Bharata Natyam.

I asked around and heard about Arpana School of Dance in Irvine. I enrolled my daughter in classes.

On a whim, I also asked whether there were any opportunities for adults to learn. I was told there was a class available if I wanted to join.

Yes, I responded. I did want to join.

My daughter sure learned about Indian culture. But she gave up dance years ago.

Me? Well, it’s arangetram time! And after that, hopefully on to more adventures ahead as a dance professional.

Thank you for visiting my website, for showing up for me, and for your support and well wishes. It means so much.

—Sapna