While the capital’s cultural milieu is not unfamiliar to dance forms, ballet, with its soft movements that resemble a river sashaying down hills, spreading over valleys, and cascading through turns with a tip-toe, is new. Yet, unbeknownst to many, this very dance form has had a presence in the city for the past ten years.
Isha Mahesh, known as Khushi among her students, and her dance school, On Pointe, has taught ballet to over 150 students since 2015, when it was established.
The Mumbaikar was trained in ballet since childhood. Her life was around the swan-like hand gestures and body movements that blended into melodious music till the time an ankle injury forced her to slow down.
She then moved to Thiruvananthapuram, where she started to train in Indian classical dance forms and martial arts, albeit with a pain of realisation deep down that she would never be able to pursue her dream of ballet.
But the pain transformed into hope when her bharatanatyam mentor came across her story and motivated her to get back to ballet. With the help of Ayurveda and some traditional exercises, she began her journey into ballet again in 2014. Completing her graduation in Fine Arts in bharatanatyam by then, she conducted a ballet workshop at the Alliance Francaise, a first such event in Thiruvananthapuram.
“I was surprised by the kind of response we got. Many came asking for another workshop and enquired about regular classes. That is how I was pushed into teaching ballet here,” she recollects about the road that led to the formation of On Pointe in 2015.
Isha teaches different forms of ballet, and a blend of them too. “I studied the RAD, British form of ballet, and did my certifications from there. Later, when I was self-training, I came across Vaganova, the Russian style, and then the Italian style. Blending all that, I offer a mix of Vaganova, Italian, and RAD methods. Also, I do give sessions on contemporary, which are offered to working women who are interested.”
As of now, she has 20 to 25 students training with her in different batches.
“Those who come regularly find this extremely beneficial because it gives them a lot of grace. It is not just that they improve in dance, but they also improve their posture and overall personality,” Isha points out.
Along with the training, her productions include ‘Seasons of Love’, a choreography on a poem by the father of one of her students. “Then, there are recitals at Alliance Francaise, at Nagercoil, and at Yen’s World School in Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from this, we have tried to compare ballet and bharatanatyam at the Olam Festival at Tagore Theatre a couple of years ago.”
Isha finds that bharatanatyam and ballet complement each other. A similar observation was made by bharatanatyam doyen Rukmini Devi Arundale, who learnt ballet before her bharatanatyam lessons. To Isha too, such a transition proved fruitful.
“If you learn bharatnatyam and then ballet, it enhances your expressions. Similarly, the lifts, lining or the lightness that you find in your ballet training is something that a bharatnayam dancer can benefit from.”
Isha, however, finds the interest of students waning as they enter higher classes. “If they are training from a younger age, teenage is the time when they are about to master the art. But they leave it all for academics. To address this concern, along with my mentor Capt Rajiv Nair, we have started a primary school — Yen’s World School. Here, we encourage children to follow their dreams without compromising them with academics,” she says.
Isha is also planning to expand her classes, provided she gets dedicated students who are willing to take them up full-time and be instructors.
Ballet’s slow entry into the capital’s art scene is slowly, smoothly winning hearts, much like the magic of the dance itself.