| Ruth Bernadette
Alexander
took Bharatanatyam dance lessons with her daughter Alexandria for
6 years for exercise and enrichment and fell in love with this beautiful
dance Art Form of India. She mainly dances with Alexandria
at retirement homes/preschools in the Bay Area since 1995 and has
performed with Alexandria in a daughter and mom duo dance on
television.
Ruth graduated from Indian Classical dance with her daughter Alexandria
on July 20, 2002. Ruth designed the brochures, invitations,
theater lighting, chose colors for costumes, chose 6 out of the 7
songs/music for the program and also chose Lord of the Dance (Gospel
hymn) for prologue, and composed the biblical ending/mangalam for this
major performance. She is married to Daniel D'Souza
originally from Bombay, India for 18
years.
As a child, Ruth participated
in ballet (origins from Rome & France); as a teenager, modern dance/jazz
and tap (origins from
America) as an adult, ballroom dance in Australia (origins Europe & Argentina), African dance,
Bharatanatyam (Southern India), Bhangra, Bollywood, Yoga and
Flamenco.
Background information:
Ruth was born in the amazing land of District Six, Cape Town, South
Africa which was destroyed, and completed her
formal education in South Africa and then traveled to
Australia, London, other countries in Europe and to cities within the U.S.A.
She then decided to continue and complete her studies in Fashion Design
at the Pacific Fashion Institute of Technology in San Francisco.
As a Fashion Design graduate, she designed and sold her clothing under
Harare (meaning freedom) in the Bay Area before her marriage. She
continued developing her fashion design skills on state of the art
fashion related computer programs until little Alexander was born. Since
2004, Ruth designs new comfortable costumes for the shows they produce
"America The Beautiful", " Let There Be Peace on Earth", "All Things
Bright & Beautiful", "For The Beauty of The Earth",
"Dancing Thru Time" and upcoming
performances. At present she studies the mrudangam, and piano with her son Alexander.
Also exposed to carnatic vocal music.
Training:
Ruth and Alexandria initially started in 1995 to train under a local
instructor/teacher in San Jose. (note the definition of Guru means someone
that was never taught by anyone) who taught them the very basics
of Bharatanatyam.
Immediately after their graduation on
7/20/2002 they decided to dance under the guidance of a new excellent Indian Classical dance teacher from India (on an as needed
basis) from 9/20/02 - 3/2004. This talented lady was dedicated to
each student and focused on perfecting posture correction in Bharatanatyam (Pandanullar style-
The Pandanullar style or Thanjavur which we were initally exposed to
basically refers to teachers in India who actually lived in a
particular village/district in
southern India or state of Tamil Nadu) (these are the teachers who
taught the instructors we had). We are grateful to the teacher for
her guidance, and who was willing to help us knowing we had our own
mission.
They continue to learn and are exposed to other dance art forms
from around the world:
American Modern Dance, Ballet, Tap, Ballroom, West African and Afro
Cuban, 2005 Flamenco and starting in the Summer 2006 Bollywood dance- Bollywood Dance:
(Bollywood dance is fusion taken from many dance forms from around the world) - borrowed
jazz, hip-hop, American Broadway, Latin basic movements, some folk dance
moves, with a touch of
the Indian classical hand gestures and mainly jazz hands danced to
Indian music". A famous American anchor lady said "the dances
looks like one of the famous American pop singers/dancer's moves
with an indian costume to indian music". Authentic Bhangra
- Fall 2006-: Bhangra is a vigorous and cheerful dance
danced to the dhol (drum) (the dance is a harvest folk dance which
was created by field farmers) from the Northwest states Punjab, Jammu
and Kashmir. Taking classes with a very creative, graceful
instructor/dancer who was and learnt this dance in Punjab. 2007 at
B. Yoga/and Camille 2001-2004 yoga- choreographing yoga
dance combined with bharatanatyam dance for our shows. August
2007-Dec 2007 Flamenco (folkloric dance) with a talented,
inspirational and professional dancer. 2008 Exposed to African
dance while visiting South Africa again. Dance classes with a
very talented/spiritual dancer originally from Malawi and teaching
different steps from the african countries. 2008 - Salsa dance
class.
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Alexandria Kristin
D'Souza born in the
beautiful land of Los Gatos/Monte Sereno, now 18, studied
Indian Classical Dance/ Bharatanatyam since the age of 5 and ascended
the stage at the Montgomery Theater at age 5.
The first instructor of this art form told us that Alexandria was ready to
graduate at the age of 8 yrs. old, which was only three years of
training in this art form (it normally takes about 7 years to graduate),
but Alexandria decided and knew that she was ready at the age of 10 when
we started training for her graduation.
Alexandria worked very hard towards completing her very basic
training (graduation as a professional dancer) in the traditional
dances of Bharatanatyam which she achieved 7/20/2002 at The Cubberley Theater in Palo Alto, California.
Alexandria has participated in many dance performances at theaters in
the bay area; The Montgomery Theater, S.J., Stage Co., S.J.
Repertory Theater, The Cubberley Theater, in Palo Alto and the S.J.
Convention Center. She also participated in a few local television
shows.
At the age of 7 Alexandria choreographed an English song about girls
around the world to Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical Ballet) for
"The Music Matters Show" which aired on local television stations for a
two weeks. She has choreographed many songs since 7 years old
and plans to continue choreographing western themes in English.
Her goal at present for "Alexandria D'Souza dance/music Guild" is
to continue to share her talents and give joy and happiness especially to the
elderly/children (we cater to the American audience) by dancing and playing piano
at retirement campuses/informal venues which she has done consistently
since the age of 5 year's old (professionally since 2002). She has
shown dedication to dance/music for the past 12 years. She also volunteered to
teach
emotional/behavioral challenged children using I.C.B..
Allie performed two Christmas 2000/2006 shows in Cape Town, South
Africa and 2005 in New York and received raving reviews from the audience.
She does many performances per month as of 2003. Background information:
Alexandria started ballet and tap as a 3 year old in Los Gatos until
first grade. At 5 she started to learn Bharatanatyam (an artform
from India) and graduated in 2002. Summer 2004 (Inspiring Instructor): Flamenco Alexandria exposed
to Flamenco. (The Gypsies started their nomadic thousand year journey
from the barren desert of Rajasthan-India, Egypt, Turkey,
Hungary, Slovakia, France and Spain). Summer 2006 (Energetic
Instructor) Bollywood Dance: Alexandria exposed to Bollywood dance
(Bollywood dance is a fusion taken from many dance forms from around the world) - borrowed
jazz, hip-hop, American Broadway, Latin basic movements, some folk dance
moves, with a touch of
the Indian classical hand gestures and mainly jazz hands". 2006-Allie
also takes dance class at the high school and she is exposed to the western dances -
Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin Ballroom (she choreographed a hip hop dance
for the Los Gatos High School recital 2007) Exposed to
Bhangra from the northwest states from 2007. Summer 2007
exposed to the Tango instruction with a professional dynamic
Latin Dancer. July-Sep. 2007 Alexandria continues learning Abhinya
with her second Bharatanatyam teacher to polish up and learn nuances of
the dance form (the instructor was fortunate to learn from a
Bharatanatyam exponent who was the best in Abhinya ot dramatization from India).
We will always be grateful to this instructor. The
dance teacher's comment 9/2007 "Alexandria IS VERY TALENTED".
2007/2008 Chinese Dance at Los Gatos High School.
She has been playing/studying
the piano since the age of 4 until the end of ther Senior year. Her other love in
addition to dance is gourmet cooking.
Alexandria gradiated from high school and will be studying
BioEngineering for her undergraduate studies at a UC as a function in life to
help our world.
Awards:
1995 Daves Avenue Talent Show "First Place for Singing"
2006
The President's USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Service Award
2007 The President's USA Freedom Corps volunteer Service Award
2008 The President's USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Service Award
For her
(Contibution as a Performing Artist producing shows for the elderly/children)
Alexander Daniel D'Souza also born in the
beautiful land of Monte Sereno,
8 year's old, has been giving joy
to the elderly since the age of three by singing on his
sister's program, only when he chose to and at 5 year's old has
started to play the mrudangam for our shows and was a big hit for our
show in Cape Town, South Africa 2006.
2004-2005 - Alex studied western drum
& guitar with a drum master.
2005-present -
Alex studies to play the mrudangam (South Indian drum) with an
accomplished/inspiring master who trained in India and toured with a
genius musician from India.
Alexander plays mrudangam for all our shows
2005-present - He also studies piano
with his sister's wonderful piano teacher since 7/2005.
2006 Studied yoga 2006/07
2007-present does Bhangra dance with his mom and sister
2007 - composed/wrote his first "Jazz Remix" song
He will be a 4th grader in the fall; has a place in the sun for soccer
(playing competitive soccer since Spring 2008); a passion for
golf , loves swimming and most of all enjoys playing with friends.
Published:
2005 Published in Creative Comm. Inc. young poet
2007 Published in Creative Comm. Inc. young poet
2008 Published in Creative Comm. Inc. young poet
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