Does the passion for dance can make a girl characterless?

Stereotypes are common in society with gender inequality. But its high time to break all those taboos. One such taboo is labeling a girl as characterless for dancing in the public. Seems weird? But to the dismay, it is a sad reality even now. My father is a champion in breaking such taboos. He brought me up without any gender restrictions. From my childhood, my passion is dance and my father encouraged me by all possible means. 

He never posed restrictions except for one, that is he either wanted me to be the central lead and not to be a side dancer. Haha, a father is always a father. From standard one to till my college days I never missed stage performance. During my ninth standard, I took part in a dance drama on Silapathikaaram portraying the role of Kovalan which is the most favorite to my father. The scene where Kovalan will be taken to the guillotine is the one cherished by the audience and my father who was the chief guest of the function was so proud. As a remembrance, my father framed the picture along with a poem which he wrote in appreciation.

But when I gave my first stage performance in the college, I experienced a different gesture. Someone threw few coins on the stage insulting my performance but they did not realize that I do not give a damn to such stupid things. Immediately after completing my performance, I ringed my father and informed him about the happening. He just said “Okay. It means that you should perform all the forthcoming years just to make those strangers realize that not everybody can have this talent and not everybody who has talent can showcase it courageously. So gear up and make sure that you are performing in all possible instances”. And I did the same.

Later I came to know that a few persons are not okay with girls giving solo performances and labeling them as characterless. Seriously? Still, I could not get the logic right. But I evolved more strongly. Henceforth I gave spot entries means giving performances on the spot without any preparation with whatever song the audio department has. I received many applauses for that courage but I was really glad when some boys appreciated me for my character at the end of our college days. I remembered my father’s words and happy that I proved that dance is a divine passion which is no way makes a girl characterless. 

And more importantly, no one should prejudice anyone, if it is being done then it should be snapped off and we should keep moving on when we are confident about ourselves.