Dhvani Kothari took to ballet at 16, late for the art form, and recently injured a ligament on the big toe of her right foot, but neither are holding her back. “As I started late,” she says, “I had to work on almost all the aspects: movements, grace, expressions.” Now 20, she has taken a year off studies — she has just completed her BMS degree — to focus on dance. “I have to work on every part of the body, including the eyelashes, to bring in grace, softness, while at the same time balancing my kicks.” To make up for lessons lost due to injury, she is practising four to five hours a day, to prepare for an important event.
She is one of four ballerinas from the Indian Academy of Russian Ballet (IARB) in Mumbai who will participate in the European Ballet Grand Prix at Vienna, Austria from February 6 to 9; they will be the first ballerinas from India to participate. They registered around the first week of November, and then there was an anxious wait until they got their confirmations. Apeksha Bhattacharya, Ms. Kothari’s teacher, founder of IARB and a ballerina herself, says, “The rigorous training began in the last week of November, but as the girls are ecstatic, they are willingly putting in the hours.”
Ms. Kothari, will be performing ‘Vestalka/Paquita’ from the ballet La Vestale (The Vestal). Ms. Bhattacharya understands how punishing the regimen is. “Her performance involves a lot of flexibility. The dancer is expected to perform high kicks with legs stretched to their maximum, making balance difficult.” In addition, the dance is adagio (slow), “in which a dancer is expected to show a high level of grace and softness in movement.” Ms. Kothari will be performing in pointe shoes — crafted to help dancers stand on their toes, and worn only after advanced training — in the classical category.
Mahee Roy, 13, will also compete in the classical category and in pointe shoes. The Class IX student will perform ‘Shades variation’ from the ballet La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer). “ La Bayadère is a renowned classic in the ballet theatres, but it is also based on a love story set in India,” says Ms. Bhattacharya. The piece involves fast movements including the fouette , changing directions while on pointe, many jumps, including a split jump in the air. Mahee is putting in two hours a day. “Along with my steps and movements,” she says, “I am equally concentrating on my expressions, which need to be serene and calm.”
The two young ones, Sanjam Kaur and Neeven Ved are both just seven, and will perform in the classical and contemporary categories, but not in pointe shoes.
Sanjam Kaur, a Class II student who has been learning ballet for two years, will perform ‘The fairy doll’ from Die Puppenfee in the classical category, where she will play the main fairy doll. The slow dance is full of intricate, soft hand movements, and has one of the most difficult moves in ballet, the ballonés , a series of kicks with the same leg. “It tires the dancer, as she needs to continuously kick the same leg while balancing on her toes,” says Ms. Bhattacharya. “As a teacher, I was very nervous to teach her ballonés , but Sanjam was excited to be doing such a tough movement.”
Sanjam, who practices four times a week, for two to three hours each, says, “I love doing splits and so I do not find ballonés too tough.” In the contemporary section, Sanjam will dance to the song ‘You raise me up’. “This dance is Sanjam’s as well as the academy’s first attempt in contemporary dance,” Ms. Bhattacharya says. “But we wanted to push ourselves to participate in all areas of the competition.”
Neeven Ved, who is in Class III, will perform ‘Cupid Variation’ from Don Quixote in the classical contest, which needs flexibility and quick turns. “I love this dance,” she says. In the contemporary category, she will dance to A.R. Rahman’s ‘ Maahi Ve ’ from the Hindi movie Highway . The choreography includes fast movements, quick turns, splits, body rolls, even a cartwheel, Ms. Bhattacharya says, “but we wish to also portray nuances of Indian expressions.” Neeven is also representing India in the Expectations of Europe contest in Sochi, Russia, in early January.
With just one-and-a-half months to go before the Grand Prix, are they nervous? Sanjam admits to being a “little nervous” about performing on such a big platform, but says she is happy and excited to be going abroad. Neeven says she is excited too, and it is “an honour to perform on that stage!” “It is an opportunity to represent our country in the ballet world,” Mahee says, “winning would definitely boost morale.” Ms. Kothari has mixed feelings: “I am excited, scared and grateful at the same time. Just being a part of something like this feels surreal. But of course, a victory would open a lot of doors for me, and for ballet in our country.”
“Our motive is to let the world know Indian ballerinas exist too,” Ms. Bhattacharya says. “We see so many European and American ballerinas. It is now time for Indian ballerinas to shine.”
