I learnt Odissi from Kiran Segal (Padmashri and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee), Ambika Panikar and Aloka Panikar in New Delhi. In 2007, I began teaching as an assistant to Kiran Segal at Pallavi Odissi Nritya Sangeet Vidyalaya. Since then, I have taught Odissi in New Delhi and Toronto. My teaching engagements have included lectures, workshops and courses for Ashoka University, Sahitya Kala Parishad, Spicmacay, University of Toronto Mississauga, and more. I currently teach Odissi classes at Studio Sama Delhi and introductory Odissi courses at Ashoka University. 

From my first steps into the world of dance in the early 1990s till now, I have engaged with Odissi as a student, performer, writer and teacher. Over a period of thirty years, these multiple viewpoints have helped me to gain a deep appreciation for the beauty and depth of Odissi as a dance form. At the same time, I am aware that too often the world of Indian classical dance is hampered by unhealthy structures and dogmatic approaches that make impossible demands on students, robbing them of the natural joy and intelligence that attracted them to the dance in the first place. 

How then might we balance these forces? Can we find a way to be reflective and critical from within the form, through the process of learning and practising? 

As a teacher, I want students to become interested in the multiple source materials that shape Odissi–the physical form, rhythm, music, textual sources, visual materials, etc. By engaging with the dance through these varied entry points, I hope that students will develop a positive and inquisitive relationship with Odissi, rather than a limited mindset that is focused only on the number of performance opportunities one gets. This is not to discount the importance of performing, especially when one is studying a performing art! Rather, it is to develop an approach that builds a sense of empowerment supported by the learning of a rich art form. 

See more about my work as an Odissi teacher here.