Hyderabad-based contemporary and classical dance exponent Vyshnavie Sainath presented her innovative dance composition—a fusion of Kerala martial arts, Kalari, and Sikh martial arts, Gatka—on Vyshnavie Natya Centre’s fifth anniversary at Ravindra Bharathi in Hyderabad recently. She says the desire to innovate has always helped her develop as an artiste and as a person.
For 26-year-old Sainath, who knows more than half-a-dozen dance forms, trying new things is not restricted to her profession. An avid marathon runner, she recently joined the league of trekkers by scaling the Stok-Kangari trek, the highest mountain in Ladakh region of India.
Enticed by the buzz trekking and mountaineering has been creating lately, the youngster registered herself for the journey. “All I wanted was to do was something adventurous,” she says.
Though she got negative responses from people, it failed to dampen her spirits. “I trained myself. I spent four-and-a-half hours each day exercising to build my core strength,” says Sainath, who started her dance school when she was 21. On September 9, she left for Leh. “I wanted to do away with the paranoia associated with ‘lone woman’ and test my limits. This pushed me to take up the challenge,” she says. That is why she also carried a banner saying ‘A Dancer can do Anything’.
Recalling the challenges she faced during the five-day trek, she says after climbing 19,000-foot her mind wanted to give up. “A clear day turned into a snow blizzard and the 12-hour climb to the 20,850-foot peak became 22 hours long. I could see the peak, but I was so tired that I didn’t want to take another step. When I saw my team returning, I took a two-minute break and continued my trek,” she says.
With food and water exhausted, the last leg of the climb was difficult for the danseuse. “When I reached the peak, I cried like a baby,” she says.
For Sainath, everything new is a great experience. It helps her know how differently she can do things. “This is why besides classical dance, I learnt contemporary dance and martial arts,” says Sainath, who knows Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Simhanandini, Kalaripayattu and other contemporary dance forms. Born into an artistic milieu to a dancer mother, Sainath started learning Bharatanatyam when she was three years old and decided to carry forward her mother’s legacy.
“It is dance that has helped me personally and professionally. In fact, if you ask me what training I undertook before trekking, I will say I danced,” says the founder of Vyshnavie Natya Centre.
Her next production, Ganga—a tribute to her Himalayan expedition—will be presented at Ravindra Bharathi on December 9. “Ganga is synonymous with feminity and valour. The act will show its beauty through Bharatnatyam and valour through martial arts. The theme will be women empowerment,” she says.