BENGALURU: It may be two years since Sofia Ronshina came across an Indian classical dance performance but the memory is strong with her. The 13-year-old from Voronezh, Russia, saw the performance at the Indian Dance Fest in Moscow and was fascinated. Now, in 2021, she is well on her way to learning Kuchipudi from Bengaluru-based dancer Vishnu Narayan.
“During quarantine, my Bollywood dance teacher here was learning Kuchipudi online from an Indian. I hadn’t tried virtual classes so I was nervous, I thought classical dance might be difficult,” says Ronshina, who was finally able to learn more about mudras. It’s been over a year since SARS-CoV-2 brought the world to a standstill. But while countries closed in on each other, a similar outward expansion took place online – where a new world of opportunities was opened, making Indian dance forms more accessible to foreign nationals.
Simran Godhwani, founder of Krshala Dance Theatre, was surprised when someone from Sweden reached out to her for Kathak lessons, and believes Bollywood might have a role to play. It certainly did in Marta Musial’s discovery of Indian dance in 2005. Five years later, the Polish national even came to India to learn Kathak but was never able to visit again. Then, in 2020, she enrolled for an online course conducted by Bengaluru-based danseuse Nirupama Rajendra.
Over two months, 33-year-old Musial was able to learn the fundamentals of Natyashastra’s movement vocabulary. “I would have loved to come to India to learn but online training was the next best option,” she says. While internet connectivity is a challenge, time zones proved to be the bigger hurdle. Nirupama Rajendra says, “Classes for Australia and UK students were held together, where evening for the former meant afternoon for the latter. Weekend nights in India were reserved for those in USA (their morning) and UK (their afternoon).”
Vishnu Narayan, who taught Ronshina and six other Russians, says language was not a problem since he has spent some years in Russia. While he conducts the regular classes, his teacher, Deepa Narayan, founder of Kuchipudi Parampara Foundation Trust, would step sometimes to check the progress. Vishnu, an initial sceptic of online learning, says, “I would travel to Russia once or twice a year to conduct classes but now, my students don’t have to wait. They practise more too.”
Godhwani too finds the enthusiasm shown by foreigners to be heartwarming. Indian classical art forms, after all, are just as much stories as dance. “Indians already know about characters from epics. But international students are curious and listen more closely. That’s a welcome change for me.”