I am a New Delhi-based teacher of the Alexander Technique and Odissi dance.

I began learning Odissi as an eight-year-old with Kiran Segal in New Delhi. From my late teens and through my twenties, I performed regularly in India and overseas as a member of her dance group. From 2007, I began teaching Odissi as her assistant at ‘Pallavi Odissi Nritya Sangeet Vidyalaya’. As an Odissi soloist, I presented performances for the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Sangeet Natak Akademi, Bharat Bhavan, National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Sahitya Kala Parishad, and more.

From 2014 onwards, I began training with Ambika Paniker and Aloka Panikar who opened for me new vistas of thinking about Odissi’s form, choreography and history in expansive and generative capacities.

It was through Ambika Paniker, who witnessed my struggle with back pain, that I learnt about the Alexander Technique. My first Alexander Technique lessons were with Padmini Menon from Bangalore.

I lived in Toronto, Canada, from 2015-2020. Here, I studied Alexander Technique with Elaine Kopman and Howard Bockner. My 1600-hour teacher training is from a course recognized by Alexander Technique Canada (previously CanSTAT) and Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT). During this period, I also found my way back to dance, performing and teaching Odissi and participating in contemporary dance projects in Canada.

I moved once again during Covid, to Connecticut, USA, and then, in 2022, back to New Delhi. Each move has brought with it new experiences. I continue to train with teachers in North America to keep my skill and understanding of the work updated. 

The Alexander Technique has indeed helped to address my back pain. And it does much more than that by introducing a way of being in the world that appears counterintuitive but at the same time, so practical and real! I credit the Alexander Technique for finding an ease of movement as well as clarity of thought, in the specific activity of dancing and generally, in life. It is not always possible to describe the fullness of the Alexander Technique in words, as it is best to have the experience, and this is what I offer as a teacher of this work.