Indian dance: Classic and Bollywood styles showcased Saturday at CSU

The Kala-Anjali India Culture Center’s third annual dance performance, “Ghungroo,” will highlight classic Indian dance as well as the more popular “Bollywood” styles of dance at Saturday’s show.

Founder Mousumi Bhandary’s students, who range in age from 5-35, will be the featured dancers.

The guest artist is Bhandary’s teacher, Madhumita Roy of Kolkata, India. Roy was considered a child dance prodigy and was taught by Kathak (a Northern Indian dance style) master Birju Maharaj in Delhi.

Ushma Desai, 24, who Bhandary calls her “right hand,” will also dance. Desai helps Bhandary teach young dancers.

Desai has danced with Bhandary for the past three years, but her dancing goes back to her childhood.

She said many of the mothers whose daughters are currently taking lessons were dancers themselves until around age 12 when their interests turned more to sports, music and academic studies.

Some, like Desai, returned to dancing as adults.

“I danced as a child,” said Maha Swami. Now her 9-year-old daughter, Pooja, a Britt David Elementary School third-grader, is the dancer in the family. Mom said because she’s a parent who works full-time, she doesn’t currently have time for lessons.

But she encouraged Pooja to learn classical Indian dance.

Even though dance lessons were her mom’s idea, Pooja said she is having fun.

Another mom, Unnati Desai was a dancer when she was young but gave up dancing to concentrate on her academic studies. Now she watches her daughter, Margi, 11, a St. Luke School fifth-grader, dance.

Mom Devica Alappan was never interested in dancing herself, but enjoys watching her 9-year-old daughter Uma, a Brookstone School fourth-grader, participate.

Shrirashmi Guddur, 9; Rohini Rewatkar, 8; Hirita Sagili, 8; and Ritika Chanda, 10, all attend Britt David, where they say they are BFFs (best friends forever). They’ve grown up together and have been dancing together for three years. The four girls say Bhandary is the “best teacher ever.”

They will be doing a Bollywood routine, which they enjoy, but they also do classical dance.

Some young dancers hope their years of lessons and performances will help them in future careers. The older girls, Shivani Upadhyay, 12, Ishani Rewatkar, 13, and Akshya Shan, 14, want to travel around the world dancing. Or perhaps teaching. Or maybe performing in Bollywood movies.

Akshya said she dreams of being on “Dancing with the Stars” one day.

Dora Moreno, an adult dancer, has never taken formal dance lessons. She watched Bollywood films and mimicked the moves. She enjoys all types of dancing from Spanish-style dancing to belly dancing to hip-hop. Saturday she’ll perform with the other adult women in the show.

Another adult dancer, Suchita Bane had always wanted to learn Indian dance and started taking lessons three years ago with Bhandary. Recently, she moved to San Francisco, but she’s back in Columbus for Saturday’s performance.

This year Bhandary has made arrangements to have her dance program certified. Students as young as 15 who study for six years and pass the tests will receive a degree in classical Indian dance.

“Every year, an examiner from India will come to test” the dancers, Bhandary said. She is happy to offer this program which will reward a dancer’s commitment, dedication and focus.