Despite the traffic and the long drive from HSR Layout, Kormangala, Yana Lewis arrives on time for the interview at our office. Her perfect timing is also reflected in her ballet. As she poses for the photographs, the ballerina effortlessly slides into a perfect split, or stretches herself just seconds before you hear the camera go click. Her face and hands move in perfect co-ordination within split seconds. She bowls you over with her grace and style.
Yana has a good memory and goes back in time to recall the very moment she began dancing. “My introduction to dance was when I was two years old. I am 53 now. Dance was something out of the world for me and still is. The imagination and creativity is what drew me to dance. I wanted to be different things like a butterfly, a swan and so on as a child. Hence, ballet was the perfect dance form to learn and I am still learning,” starts Yana, who also founded The Lewis Foundation in 2006 in Bengaluru.
She has been teaching for 35 years now and says she has “learnt many things as a teacher. You learn about different body types, their anatomy. Every body is unique and so is their perception.”
Born in the U.K., Yana started going to full time ballet school when she was 10 and started performing locally. “That is when I wanted to take ballet seriously.”
She explains how namma Bengaluru became home to her.
“My journey to India and Bengaluru has been quite wild. It was yoga that brought me here. I’d learnt from BKS Iyengar in the U.K. and wanted to be a part of his eightieth birthday celebrations. Globally yoga is everywhere, but its origin is here. I wanted to be here for that. Seeing the warmth and love here I didn’t feel like returning to the U.K.,” recalls the ballet teacher. “Life here is exciting. Right from the way your dress to even your driving, it is all different every day. In London, you’ll see the same things happen every day in a monotonous way. I felt disconnected even with the audience. Finally I found my home here.”
Yana adds that she sold everything back home and came here. “My family was shocked. People invited me to stay with them. There is so much love, warmth and hospitality here. I started having workshops in ballet. I studied and saw a lot of dance forms, and also taught Indian classical dancers how to dance and not injure your body. Indian classical dancers are prone to get injured easily in their knees and lower backs. So my classes helped them. That is I was how I was able to sustain myself.”
For more you can log on to http://www.thelewisfoundation. org/
