Tushar Kaushik chronicles Sushmitha’s wonderful yet tough journey — starting ballet at 21 to becoming an accomplished ballerina
Were you mesmerised by watching Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis perform ballet in the movie Black Swan? A ballet performance often has that effect. However, hardly anyone in India has gained expertise in this dance form that is as wonderful to look at as it is hard to master. And most people begin ballet classes very young.
Sushmitha Margad from Bengaluru is probably one of the country’s finest exponents of ballet. What, however, is incredible is that she took up ballet at the age of 21 and four years down the line, quit her marketing job to pursue ballet professionally. And her love affair with the dance form makes for quite a story.
To say Sushmitha was interested in dance from a young age is an understatement — she wanted to learn bharatnatyam at the age of three! And when the dance teacher refused to take her in as she was too young, she would go to the dance class and simply watch the others dance. Eventually, she did begin to learn bharatnatyam at the right age and learnt it until her seventh grade.
At 21, in her third year of engineering at MS Ramaiah College of Engineering, she felt the need to have a hobby, took up jazz and found that she liked it. “I was so in love with jazz and in order to get better at it I started learning ballet. I guess with time ballet overtook jazz and before I knew it, it was all about ballet. Once I started classes I was choosing it over everything else in life. I would not go to movies or hang out with friends and would bunk college to attend ballet classes.” And this in spite of being a beginner in a dance form that is known for the dedication and discipline it demands.
After finishing engineering, Sushmitha took a 10-month break during which she continued learning ballet with utmost passion and dedication. And next she did something she can’t herself explain — an MBA, after which she joined a firm briefly before joining TCS as a Market Research Analyst. Then began a period where she had to juggle between her work and her first love. “I had managers who allowed me a flexible schedule to attend classes. I actually loved my job and was one of the best employees there.”
After four years of juggling, it was time for Sushmitha to give her first ballet examination, which marked a turning point. Having coped well with the rigours of both work and ballet until now, she had to devote more time to ballet. “I was working for 13 hours every day, would come home and still manage to practise. I have no clue how I did it. I thought I probably should never do anything like this again to myself, it was so challenging both physically and emotionally.” She underwent the examination in Greece and cleared it with distinction. But she knew she couldn’t do this much longer and had to choose between her job and ballet.
Her next big ambition was to take up the teachers’ examination in ballet, for which she decided to take a year off from work. A year became 18 months and after acing another examination, held last year, with 91 per cent, she finally made the choice to not return to corporate life.
This development now allows her to formally teach ballet, something she loves. “As a kid, I always wanted to be a teacher. Teaching and dancing are my two passions and they come together here. No matter how hard a day has been, even if I’ve rehearsed the whole day and I have to teach for three hours, I just have to get into the studio and I’m in my element.”
Lewis Academy, where Sushmitha learns and teaches ballet, will conduct a ballet examination in India for 112 students in November — a first for the country, and this is something that really excites Sushmitha especially with a clear rise in the number of people taking up ballet. “I feel with the very young ones it’s more of a trend. And of course ballet being shown in movies helps too,” she concludes.
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