"From Cancer to Dance"

How can you survive cancer? Ananda Shankar Jayant tells her story of how she conquered her disease through dance. Ananda, a dance teacher, danced all her life. After visiting the hospital, she finds out that she has breast cancer. As she struggled in the beginning with shattered confidence, she finds the stage as a hopeful platform to fight head on with cancer. Battling with hair loss and a weakened body, she regained a new perspective through dance and religion. She performs two styles: Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. The styles are very close to each other because both incorporate a lot of similar rhythmic movements and music styles. With all Indian dance forms, they are built on the foundation of Indian poetry, philosophy, and the Hindu religion. 

I chose this video primarily because I could relate to her story as I am an Indian, also because I have worked over four years in the oncology ward at Duke Hospital. I spent eight hours every work day in the summer with the cancer patients. I was a junior nurse taking care of the patients' needs and running basic lab work. Although it was a depressing job to see people suffering, some patients really turned their life around due to the disease. I saw how patients changed from every chemo, becoming stronger and more determined. I have heard countless survivor stories, but never have I heard a story like this. Dance never struck me as a technique to fight cancer because it weakens people mentally and physically. However, she was different. I was surprised with the immense amount of dedication she had for the art. All together, I feel empowered by her words that with a change in the mindset, I can turn around my life for the better. 

Ananda Shankar Jayant

This story's purpose it to change one's mindset positively to encourage oneself to fight against a relentless disease like cancer. Her intentions are to persuade and to teach the audience how to enlighten and reconnect with one's passion to fight any sort of difficulty. Apart from using pathos as a way of communicating with the audience, she uses an interesting technique in her presentation- dance. Another interesting fact is that the target audience is not just the Indian population, but people from different nationalities as well. People of all nationalities seemed to appreciate and admire Ananda's self confidence and her story. She explains that narrative dance is a metaphor for her. The story of each dance is specific to a God in the Hindu religion. This allows her to feel and communicate the message of each story. Dance is a symbol representing all the struggles she has gone through. 

This quote from her speech is especially motivating and it is the main argument she makes throughout her presentation, "Your mind is really your final frontier. I was able to take my thoughts and push them into my dance. I made it so that cancer was not a big deal. I would go and get my chemo, take the three days rest that my body needed, and then I was back in the studio dancing, teaching class or doing choreography." Ananda starts by presenting a Bharatanatyam, a energetic dance demonstrating her power, then she ends by presenting Kuchipudi. This form of dance reveals a sense of beauty, devotion, and physical art. Her performances capture the audience through her intense facial expressions and her hand forms which depict symbolic gestures to convey a message to the audience.