GURUS.
TEACHeRS...
luminious beings all...
MRS. UMA SHETTY- LUCKNOW
My First guru, a gentle soul who taught dance at Loreto Convent School in Lucknow. In school, it was her dance classes that I most looked forward to and at home private tutions from her became vignettes through which I glimpsed the marvelous world of Indian Classical Dance. The foundations that she gave me have always helped me as a dancer. It was in these inspired classes where movement and expressions made stories and characters come alive that I as a child, awakened to the love of dance.
SWATI MAHALAXMI- Welhams, Dehra Doon
My final year at Welham Girls' and we got a new Bharatnatyam teacher. Swati Mahalaxmi was intelligent and well read and an extremely well trained dancer. She offered me my first direct look at the world of pure classical dance and what it demanded from anyone who aspired to study it in earnest. She also gave me an informal introduction to Odissi and sparked in me an interest to pursue it further. An interest that would shape my future path and what I subsequently chose to do.
ALOKA PANIKAR- DELHI
Aloka Panikar was pure and gentle this reflected in her brand of Odissi AND complemented her qualities as a guru. She meticulously etched out the lines of the Odissi technique onto my body and into my being. Her detailed method of teaching created an awareness of how a perfectly executed movement can be more lucid than a spoken word. The numerous years spent training with her marked my many firsts...my first training as a classical dancer...my first solo debut...my first trip abroad, to mention a few.
GURU BANAMALI MAHARANA- BHUBANESHWAR
It was a trip to Bhubaneshwar, to connect with the birthplace of Odissi and to try my hand at learning the Odissi Mardal that led to my meeting with Guru Banamali Maharana...an exemplary guru, an endearing soul and a legendary maestro of the mardal. It has been a deep connection with him ever since. His own formidable associations with Odissi's legendary gurus and performers have given him a deep insight into the dance itself. It is in my myriad interactions with him that I have learnt much about this dance form, the nuances of it's rhythms and the enduring connection of art to life itself.
GURU GANGADHAR PRADHAN- BHUBANESHWAR
In the field of Odissi, a blazing meteor-that was HE. Guru Gangadhar Pradhan granted me a vision of perfect movement and through that the divine. For that, I am eternally indebted. His personal vision of bringing Orissan Culture to the world drove him to work at a frenzied pace. Battling many odds both in his personal and professional life he kept his spirits high and bounced back to his original self. But, alas, he left us and the physical world suddenly and too soon. To this dear soul, I have in my mind given the epithet of NARTAK ATMA an aphorism from Kashmir Shaivism. As for me, he left me with a brief but intense experience of sensing the divine with purity of movement and a constant yearning to find that perfection within myself.
GURU LINGARAJ ACHARYA- DELHI
Seraikella Chhau beckoned me for one reason: the use of movement to bring life into inanimate masks. To have been initiated into this form by Guru
Lingaraj Acharya was my good fortune. It was a magnificent way to be introduced to a magnificent art-form. Having their faces concealed, Seraikella Chhau dancers emote through the sheer power of movement. The glorious moments are still vividly etched in my mind when Guruji was demonstrating the different characters and how each pore of his skin would be oozing the dramatic element...his own being transformed magically into the character he portrayed and as I watched that transformation it forever changed my way of looking at movement.
GURU SHASHADHAR ACHARYA- DELHI
Friend, mentor, guide...I fall short of words when I describe my relationship with Guru Shashadhar Acharya. I was bequeathed to him as a student by his father and he has played the role of Guru to perfection. Of course, he has tended tirelessly to the physical aspect of my dance but what I credit him with most is to have let the dancer within me blossom unhampered. He has watched silently as the artist within me has struggled to find itself, without interrupting and without imposing his own...ever. This quality, alone warrants him to be qualified as a TRUE guru. I cherish my ongoing guru-shishya relationship with him and the fact that it continues to help me grow as a dancer.
Ms. BEVERLY BROWN- NEW YORK
Somewhere between the lines of Odissi and Seraikella Chhau, there was a stirring. Then it was a book of essays The Body is a Clear Place by Erick Hawkins that drew me to look into the world of American Contemporary Dance. That was the beginning of an extended stay in New York City, of new associations and a new way of looking at dance. Beverly Brown was a teacher at The Erick Hawkins Dance Studio and my first interface with the world of American Contemporary Dance. Numerous interactions with her both in class at the Erick Hawkins dance studio and her loft in the east village acquainted me with the philosophy and practice of modern dance.
Ms. MARY ANTHONY- NEW YORK
The yogi in New York City and her beautiful studio which was akin to an ashram. This was where I really learnt what underlies the movement of contemporary dance. Mary was 83 at that time...a spectacular being even at that age. She lived a disciplined, frugal life with her two cats and dedicated her life to teaching her art. Every aspect of her life was a thing to learn by. It was this spectacular teacher who taught me that all movement originates from the depth of our being. Conversations with her led me to re-tread the path of my own training as a traditional performer and to find loud echoes of modern thought in our very own traditions.