Mumbai: Priyanshi Parikh became interested in ballet when she was six. As a Class II student in Bangkok (where her father was posted), she was fascinated by the graceful hand and arm movements and turns she saw her gymnastics teacher doing. The teacher had been a ballet dancer, and she, seeing the child’s interest, told her parents that they should get her enrolled in a ballet class. There weren’t many options in Bangkok, but the little girl would learn what she could by watching videos online and imitating them.
Then, in 2013, with her mother and younger sister, Priyanshi moved to Mumbai as the family wanted the girls to study in the city. “It was difficult to find good ballet teachers here,” her mother says, “but we found a dance academy in Juhu which taught various dance forms.” There, Priyanshi began to learn with ballerina Apeksha Bhattacharya, who taught in the school. Then Ms. Bhattacharya left for Russia for further studies in the art. But when she returned, after her stint at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, she opened her Indian Academy of Russian Ballet at Ville Parle in 2015. Priyanshi began to learn with her again, getting four hours of lessons a week.
Within two months, Ms. Parikh graduated from soft ballet slippers to the pointe shoes that enable ballerinas to dance en pointe (on the tips of their toes), and her movements became sharper and crisper. She has progressed so much that she will be competing in the Asian Grand Prix International Ballet Competition in Hong Kong from 7th to 12th August.
The competition gives young dancers a chance to demonstrate their talents and learn from experts. Outstanding dancers receive awards and scholarships of renowned ballet schools to further their education and professional career. Priyanshi will be competing with 300 dancers from 15 countries in the Junior A category. She will be the first dancer trained in India to compete.
Priyanshi says that while she wanted to compete internationally, she wasn’t sure she was good enough yet. But Ms. Bhattacharya had been closely observing her dance postures, strength, endurance, and most important, her willingness to work for long hours on the art. “I wanted my students to compete at international competitions,” Ms. Bhattacharya says, “but did not think that we would be participating this year itself.”
When her parents and teacher decided to enter Priyanshi for the competition, they came up against a hurdle: there was no slot for India; no one from the country had ever participated before. After a flurry of emails to the organisers, Priyanshi was finally able to register in March this year.
Since then, it has been gruelling. The hours of practice increased: since March, she has been putting in at least two hours a day four times a week, “On Saturdays and Sundays, I practice for nearly four to five hours.” Priyanshi already has the flexibility essential for a ballerina, and she does not lack in confidence. But she was overweight by dancer standards, and had to lose weight quickly, but in a healthy way. “I had to follow a strict diet regimen recommended by Ms. Bhattacharya and a nutritionist,” she says, and then grins, “I was allowed to binge once in a while!” The work paid off, and she lost around six kilos in three months.
And studies? No worries there, she says. “Practicing ballet makes me more energetic and disciplined and I am able to manage both academics and ballet sessions quite well.”
At the Grand Prix, Priyanshi will be performing the pas de trois from Act I of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. “The dance was chosen from a list of variations given to us by the organisers,” Ms. Bhattacharya says. “It is a combination of beautiful port de bras (arm movements) along with allegro (quick) steps and turns.”
“It is a two-minute performance,” Priyanshi says. “It begins with beautiful graceful movements and includes attitude [where the dancer is balanced on one leg with the other raised high], arabesque [a kind of attitude in which the dancer is on one leg with the other extended behind the body], échappé [a movement from a basic closed position to an open position]. The end is the toughest as it is a series of continuous turns.”
Priyanshi will wear a gold-and-blue costume designed especially for the occasion by a studio in Juhu, with hand-crafted headgear created by a craftsperson in Vashi and pink Grishko shoes ordered from St. Petersburg.
At the Grand Prix, she will also get the chance to attend seminars and classes on traditional and contemporary ballet. And when she returns, she will be performing in Ms. Bhattacharya’s academy show, a rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, on August 19 in Bandra’s St Andrew’s Auditorium. That’s for now. Long-term, she has big dreams: “My ultimate desire is to open a big ballet academy with branches all over India!”
