Nitya to perform Bharatnatyam arangetram in city today

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 20

A city-based girl, Nitya Mahajan, will perform Bharatnatyam arangetram at Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, tomorrow. It will be a continuous one-and-a-half-hour performance to the live orchestra. Arangetram is debut onstage performance of a former student of Indian classical dance and music. In Malayalam, arangu means ‘stage’ and ettam means ‘rising’. It is only after performing arangetram that one can give public performances.

It was in LKG that Nitya’s mother, Nupur Mahajan, made her join a dance class at a fun club. At the age of three years, she won her prize during an event held at a local club.

“It was her dance teacher who saw potential in her and asked her to join some classical dance. I then started searching for a teacher for my daughter. Luckily, I came across Pinky Chaudhary, who was the only teacher teaching Bharatnatyam classical, and since then, Nitya is her ‘sishiya’. Both guru and shishya have come a long way and tomorrow Nitya will be performing her arangetram,” said Nupur.

Nitya has been an all-rounder student. She was the overall topper of her school, Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, with 98.2 per cent and was topper in humanities stream this year. She has been a NCC cadet and went to won All-India Best Cadet Award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. She also won an award for Best National Bharatnatyam Dancer in 2017 at Solan.

She is pursuing Visharad I BA degree in Bharatnatyam from Pracheen Kala Kendra and will be soon leaving to pursue her studies further in psychology at the University of British Columbia.

“I will be leaving India for further studies, but Bharatnatyam is my first love and will continue with the course I am pursuing through correspondence and will be frequently visiting India for the same,” Nitya said.

Kathak maestro Dr Shobha Koser will be the chief guest of the occasion and five musicians, who will be a part of the orchestra, are coming from Chennai to be a part of the event.