Dance has been a passion for Aiswarya Prince ever since she could remember. When she took her first lessons in dance as a three-year-old, she never knew that it would remain with her for the next three decades and more.
Today, even as she juggles her roles as a wife, mother, news reader, television anchor and emcee, Aiswarya finds the time for dance as well. And this Thiruvonam she is performing at Vyloppilly Samskriti Bhavan as part of the Department of Tourism’s Onam celebrations.
“I studied dance because my parents, Kesavan Nair and Jayanthi, encouraged me to do so. Till a few years ago, I was contented with stage performances. Now, I have decided to take dance seriously and that too Kuchipudi,” she says.
Why Kuchipudi? “I love the style, grace and songs of Kuchipudi. I enjoy performing it more than any other dance form. It has much to do with the training I got from my gurus, Geetha Krishnakumar and Girija Chandran of Regatta dance school in the city.”
The 34-year-old has been in the limelight from her school and college days with her dance performances. A regular participant at school and college-level youth festivals, she simultaneously got into the field of anchoring as well.
In 1996, she anchored a national programme on music for Doordarshan Delhi and later started compeering for the Soorya festival, which she has been doing for the past 17 years. She has also anchored programmes for various government departments, private organisations, and corporate groups.
“One event that is close to my heart is the air show that was held in 2008 at Shanghumugham. We were sitting on a stage many feet above the ground and it was exciting to announce the arrival of flights from Pune and Bangalore as they whizzed past us,” she says.
In the mean time, she also got into news reading. In 2001, she joined Asianet News as a news reader. She is currently a news reader with Surya TV.
She is also squeezing in time for Swasti School of Dance and Music, Nanthancode, where she is the vice principal.
Amidst all that she has her hands full with her twin sons, Abhinav and Vaibhav. “But for my husband Prince Vinod and my mother it would never have been possible for me to do the multi-tasking,” she says.
Aiswarya performs Kuchipudi at Koothambalam of Vyloppilly Samskriti Bhavan on September 7 at 7.50 p.m.
