The Ankle Band Snaps at Matra Nine
Forty seconds into a three-minute teentaal nritta piece, the right ankle band of a candidate's ghungroo (about 100 bells per foot) snaps. The bells stay on her foot but the loose strap trails near the heel on a polished marble stage. The examiner, who has 12 candidates on a fixed schedule, signals with a hand to continue. The green room with her spare pair is a 60-metre walk; her costume is a long angrakha; the next candidate is due in eight minutes. The break happens at matra 9 - khali - of the avartan, the lehra continues, the hall holds about 200 students, and she has 2 minutes 20 seconds of the piece left. She has never rehearsed a failure plan.
1. What should she do in the next four matras, and what must she not do? Justify each choice against exam criteria.
Read the worked answer
In the next four matras: hold the cycle. She is on khali, which is the safest place to simplify - reduce the right foot to a flat, unaccented placement and move the accents to the left foot so the sound stays even and the tala stays audible. Keep the lehra in her ear and do not attempt to recover the missing bell sound.
Later in the piece: keep the closing tihai, but thin the footwork so the landing on sam is unambiguous. A tihai with a simplified tatkar still lands; a tihai with a stumbling right foot usually does not.
Must not:
- Bend down to fix the strap. Her back is to the examiner, the flow breaks, and on polished marble a trailing strap plus a bent, unbalanced body is a fall risk.
- Kick the strap away or improvise a comic gesture. It draws the hall's attention to the equipment and away from the tala.
- Stop to apologise mid-avartan. The lehra does not stop for her; halting off-sam converts an equipment problem into a laya error.
At the acknowledgement: stand, complete the salutation, then disclose in one sentence: 'My right ghungroo strap failed on matra nine; I continued on the left foot to protect sam.' Examiners mark stage discipline and recovery - the disclosure shows she knew exactly where she was when it happened.
2. Was 'continue' the right call? Give the conditions under which the answer flips.
Read the worked answer
Yes, continue - on these grounds. The defect is cosmetic and audible, not a safety emergency, provided she does not bend or tread on the strap. The schedule is fixed and a restart costs the next candidate. A performance is assessed as delivered, and examiners reward composure under disruption more than a flawless run of an easy piece.
The answer flips if:
- The band has left the ankle and bells are loose on the floor - that is a trip hazard for her and for the next candidate; stop.
- There is pain, numbness or a cut - stop; no marks are worth an injury.
- The examiner expressly offers a pause or a re-tie. Then take it.
How to stop, if you must: not mid-avartan. Reach a phrase boundary and stop on sam, face the examiner, ask permission in one short sentence, then either re-tie or remove both sets for symmetry. Restart from sam, never from the middle of a cycle.
The governing principle to state in viva: never break the tala mid-cycle; if you must break, break on sam. That single line distinguishes a candidate who panicked from one who made a decision.
3. What three-item check would have prevented this, and which is the most likely to be skipped under exam pressure?
Read the worked answer
The check:
- Inspect before tying - run a thumb along both straps and knots, look for fraying at the buckle or the point where the band meets the bells, and carry spare laces or tape in the bag. Most failures are visible two minutes before they happen.
- Test after tying - 16 tatkar matras at performance tempo on a floor similar to the hall's, listening for unevenness and checking that nothing trails at the heel.
- Rehearse a one-line failure protocol - know the nearest place off-stage to fix equipment, and pre-decide the sentence she will say in viva.
Most likely to be skipped: the post-tying test, because it happens when the candidate is already being called and the ghungroo are 'done'. It is also the only check that tests the strap under the exact tension and tempo of performance - a strap that is fine standing still fails on the first fast tatkar.
Add one stage-specific item: check the surface. On polished marble or a newly varnished stage the correct adjustment is lighter, flatter foot placement and a check that the costume hem and the ghungroo ties clear the floor. Surface checks are the item candidates and teachers most often omit, because they assume the floor will be like the rehearsal room.