Dance of life

SD Sharma

Of the select band of Indian dancers, who have made an indelible impression with their first appearance on the concert stage, is internationally renowned Kathak Duo - Nalini Kamalini, the devoted disciples of Kathak maestro, Guru Jitendra Maharaj of Varanasi Gharana, the trendsetter of temple style of Kathak dancing

Born in Agra, brought up and educated in Delhi both Nalini and Kamalini had extensively performed in India and abroad with a view to propagate the art run Sangeetika-an institute of performing arts.

Both sisters are in city on the invitation of Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi in Nrityanjali Classical Dance Festival at Tagore Theatre.

How did Kathak happen to become your calling in life?

Once we witnessed a performance by our revered guru Jitendra Maharaj and it was so spontaneous that we decided to learn it on priority. Since lot of practice and time was required to accomplish the complicated dance mudraas, I had to drop my Chemical Engineering, and take up ancient history for my masters’ degree. Similarly, Kamalini too left her MBBS course to take up English literature. This was the height of our passion. Now we live Kathak dance only.

How was your experience performing abroad?

In 1984 we had to give 15 performances in Paris, but our popularity as Delhi Dancing Sisters won us 185 performances.

What was your special contribution during the tour?

We had the satisfaction of introducing the Indian culture to the youth. We gave lecture demonstration and performances with adequate explanations before the young audience at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics to name a few. The young audience were very inquisitive; in fact later some of them even became our distant disciples. We owe all our name and fame to the rich Indian cultural traditions, especially the classical dances.