When I was a little girl, probably younger than my daughter (she's 11), I used to love to go to our small town movie theater. It was a little theater by the woods that back then felt almost like out-of-town. The theater had a cute name, "Brook" ("Родник") and later became a place where young people would go dancing (disco club I guess). As a kid, I usually would attend either a morning or an afternoon showing, and watch cartoons, fairy tales, and children's movies. But at some point, I discovered the joy of Bollywood movies. I did not know the word "Bollywood" back then (and probably did not know the word "Hollywood" either) - we simply called them "Indian movies" (индийское кино) and were captivated with the bright colors, costumes, music, singing and especially with the exotic dancing of these movies. I can't remember titles any more. I remember there was a movie about a girl named Bobbie - that one was probably my favorite as I still remember her! My friend, a neighbor girl Nadya and I, would come see something like "Bobbie", laugh and cry our eyes out, then come back home to our little apartments next to each other, draw little red circles on our foreheads, put on skirts and imagine that we were exotic Indian dancers. There was nothing else in the world we wanted to become - just these gorgeous dark-haired, dark-skinned Indian girls wearing brightly colored exotic clothes, a little sparkle in our noses and a red dot on our foreheads, who dance! I think soon after that I started going to a local dance studio and learn contemporary dancing.
