“Sometimes it takes the worst to bring out your best. As a child, I believed my mother was my arch rival. Dance almost came to me in my genes. Since my mother, Rajeswari Sainath is a renowned Bharatnatyam Dancer, I started dancing early on. This definitely gave me the emotional strength and support a performer needs, but often wrecked me mentally, pushing me to believe that my only goal is to outdo her one day. It was only as I grew older and began to understand and enjoy dance that my love for learning developed and things changed for the better. My mother became my biggest strength, while continuing to be my most honest critic.
After more than 15 years of Bharatnatyam, it was on a professional trip to Bhubaneswar during my college years that I was introduced to Odissi. This slowly progressed into Kuchipudi, Kalaripayattu, Contemporary, Yoga and so much more. Every time I trained a new form under a new Guru, it was like the dancer in me took rebirth. I started again from zero, taking every correction and whacking in my stride, which has kept me grounded till date.
I was 22 when I moved to Bangalore to learn movement art. I was already establishing myself as a Bharatnatyam dancer then but I often pushed myself a little too much and tried new things without a clear understanding of technique or realising the limitations of my body. I also made the mistake of ignoring my pains. This led to a serious back injury, followed by a surgery. For about a year and a half, I was restricted to minimal movement. The biggest dip in my career physically, gave me the chance to grow mentally- to sit back, observe, think and rethink.
As destiny would’ve had it, all of this combined with my hard work yielded the best possible results. Today, I run my own dance institute, I have managed to establish a style of my own, I understand myself better and am known for my confluence of multiple art forms. When I help someone with a physical disability heal through dance, or help boost someone’s confidence by choreographing for themselves or recieve a loud applause for my performance, the teacher, the student, and the performer in me are happy, but most importantly, the dancer in me rejoices.”

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