Bharatanatyam encompasses namaskara, salaam, sign of the cross

Syed Shoaib | NT

Bengaluru: Just before the curtain is set to go up on her long-cherished dream, Richa Joanita Das exudes the confidence of a well-prepared student sitting at the examination desk. Years of dedication at converting the dream to reality, she tells News Trail, has left no room for nervousness or anxiety.

“I am excited to be standing at the threshold of the moment I’ve been waiting a lifetime for,” she says. Being born in a family of engineers and teachers did not deter the exuberant damsel from choosing a path less travelled.

“In fact, dad’s been the encouraging factor ever since I got drawn to the art as a four-year-old, a roadside poster I couldn’t stop ogling at telling him which way I wanted to go in life,” she recalls. Be it at “mainstream” career or a professional hobby, one’s going to get as good as the teacher.

Richa learns classical dance at the Upadhye School of Dance, which is run by Guru Parshwanath Upadhye, Guru Shruthi Gopal and Guru Adithya PV. “That is as important as my gurus have been in giving a form to my childhood fantasy,” she says, with her almond-shaped eyes doing most of the communication.

That coupled with the myriad expressions her lucid face is able to convey, the 5’7” mass communication student from Bishop Cotton Girls’ School, who is all of 17 years, captivated the audience as she stepped into ‘guruhood’ at the ADA Rangamandira on Friday.

Her 105 minutes of high-decibel act was interspersed with an understanding and appreciative audience putting their hands together every time Richa hit a crescendo. The thunderous never-ending clapping at the end of the performance may have sounded like music to the ears of her parents and grandparents sitting among the audience, rising to their feet to join the applause.

“Discipline, like the kind my son does every chore with and passion my daughter (in-law) exhibits in all she does, Richa has given to the classical dance form from the day she joined Bharatanatyam as a five-year-old.

That has borne fruit today,” an elated Nancy Das, a retired schoolteacher said. In keeping with the changing social structure, the dance form has adapted the British salute, salaam of the Mughal era and the sign of cross, compere Shruthi Gopal revealed, going on to announce relevance of the occasion.

Arangetram is a milestone in a performer’s life, an achievement that separates the amateur from the professional. “It is with this achievement that I will be able to impress upon people that I am now capable of grooming others,” adds Richa, indicating how zealous she is about classical dance.