KOCHI: For dental student Priyanka Raghavan, dance is not something which interferes with her studies but a stress buster. This attitude of hers has taken her places, for right now, she has managed to secure a BDS degree on merit as well as the Kishore Prathibhe Award in dance from the Department of Kannada and Culture, among many others.
A Thrissur native, Priyanka moved to Bangalore when she was small, as her father got transferred. But she continued to learn bharatanatyam under Padmini Ramachandran, and has now completed 15 years under her guru, having performed her ‘arangettam’ at the age of 10.
“Unlike in Kerala, people learn just one dance form in other states,” she says. “A bharatanatyam artist will learn only bharatanatyam, a kathak artist only kathak etc.” This is done so that other styles don’t interfere with your own and to maintain its purity. Students learn two or more dance forms in Kerala probably with the youth festivals in mind, she says. But now that she has reached a certain level in bharatanatyam, she would like to give mohiniyattam a try.
Priyanka chose dentistry so that she could devote time for dance even after she starts practising. “Your studies will get over in a few years time. But your passion won’t. You can’t just let it go for the sake of studies,” she says. Right now, she has a six-month break as she is preparing for her MDS exam and so decided to give some dance performances. So far she has performed solo at the Sharadostav Dance Festival and at the Dance Festival at Chennai conducted by Karthik Fine Arts and at the Indian Institute of World Culture.
She manages to put in at least one hour of practice every day but it hasn’t been easy, she says. She secured 90 percent in the junior exam and first class in the senior exams in bharatanatyam conducted by the state board where she had to mug up a lot of dance theory. “It was worth it, as theory helps a lot in performances.” Priyanka is also a graded audition artist at the Doordarshan kendra.
“I have no intention of giving up dance. I’m thinking of a dual career, dentistry and dance,” she says. We wish her the best!
