Today we’d like to introduce you to Paramita Bhattacharyya.
Hi Paramita, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My interest in dance started at a young age when I first watched the ‘National Program of Dance’ on Doordarshan, the National Television channel in India. I noticed a form of dance very pleasing to the vision that involved a lot of spinning and beautiful sound of the ankle bell. I asked my parents to please let me learn this type of dance and find a teacher for me. Eventually, I found out this form of dance is known as ‘Kathak’. I only knew that I wanted to learn this magical dance movements but did not know that this will someday let me meet the Kathak legend Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj ji and learn from him and that it would lead me in the path to promote and educate Indian classical dance and culture abroad.
I remember my teachers in school would always pick me for the cultural shows and I would dance in any music may it be choregraphed for a musical solo, group performance, or a dance drama. As I grew older learning the technical details of the dance form, I fell in love with ‘Kathak’.
There were times when academic course of study demanded more attention and practicing dance was about to take a back seat, but I asked myself why both study and dance cannot get the same attention. I decided to work on both simultaneously and give it similar importance, no matter how much hard work would it need.
I learned from many renowned Kathak gurus in India and continued to fine tune my dance. Today, through my performances and dance workshops, I educate my students and audiences in India and in USA the importance of dance and how the art of storytelling is presented through ‘Kathak’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road always but if there is a thirst for pursuing a passion then we find way out even in a difficult path. Among many challenges in the journey, I would like to mention the first one that could have kept me from starting my dance journey at all, and that was to find a dance teacher nearby, especially in those days with no Internet availability and less access to information. I, with my parents, used to live in a not so big industrial town where my father worked as an engineer and that area, being a bit far from the big city, did not have many opportunities to find a dance teacher. After a search of around one year, we found my first dance teacher and enrolled in the class that required me to walk one mile each way and then travel in a public bus for 2 hours each week. I did this for two years and as my father took a transfer at his workplace and we shifted to the nearby big city, I finally got the opportunity to attend my classes with ease and a comfortable travel.
By the time I was in my high school, I was able to achieve one of the highest dance degrees ‘Sangeet Prabhakar’ with first class and a higher-grade percentage with a lot of hard work and guidance of my teacher.
Other major challenge is to present Indian traditional dance form in a foreign land and educate people about the impact of dance on our society, that I am trying to do now in USA. I find it important to present Indian dance ‘Kathak’ alongside other western classical dance like Ballet and other forms so that we can exchange cultural values and explore new forms of dance movements that will help achieve many societal benefits, stress management, and well-being of the body, and mind.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a ‘Kathak’ dance exponent. The meaning of ‘Kathak’ is storytelling and the artist is known as ‘Kathakar’, the storyteller. As a danseuse and a performing artist, I like to develop new ideas on how to present various stories through dance movements related to today’s social, environmental, and human problem. Recently, I was invited to present my work in a virtual dance series on the theme of social change, organized by Mark DeGarmo Dance, one of the leading dance organizations in New York, in association with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council.
Also, I got an opportunity to work as a dance educator in the leading dance educator institute in USA, National Dance Education Organization (NDEO).
I feel proud when I see myself representing Indian traditional dance form ‘Kathak’ in front of not only Indian audiences in USA but also non-Indian audiences who appreciate the dance form and feel interest to know more about it.
My style of dance includes a lot of poetry along with musical movements, storytelling, and expression of our feelings as a human being and I feel the audiences easily can relate themselves with the performance and get involved with the art form. I think the audience involvement is important that makes my presentation interactive and that sets me apart from other forms of presentation.
My dance journey brought me many performance opportunities in India and abroad, recognition and awards including ‘Nritya Bhushan’, certificate of commitment from the ‘World Book of Records’, London, and ‘Savyasachi’ dance educator award to name a few. Many people liked my performances and to my surprise, I received an approach from a beauty pageant organization in USA to participate as a representation of India. I grabbed this opportunity and represented Indian tradition, art, and culture in this International stage as a beauty pageant and bagged the ‘award of excellence’.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I believe not luck but hard work, love for dance, and determination played the important roles in my dance journey.
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