Elegance in each move

Mona

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What is meant to be is meant to be. For actor-dancer Nandita Puri Dhanoa, her first introduction to kathak was during a dance festival in Delhi — a performance by Padma Shri-recipient Roshan Kumari of the Jaipur Gharana in Delhi, which she attended with her parents. It was only years later that she was to reach Kumari, as a disciple at Mumbai. Thirty years of her journey in classical dancing, Nandita passed the by-lanes of television, trained young dancers and enjoyed a stint with the camera as well!

It was as if I did TV to support my career as a dancer. I vividly recall that I got an invite to perform at Khajuraho Festival, but the remuneration offered was falling short by Rs 10,000. Now no dancer says no to Khajuraho! I was doing THE series Campus Back theN and used up my savings from it to perform at the festival. — Nandita puri, Dancer-Actor

The coming Saturday is special for her, for Triveni Sangeet Sabha, which she is the president of, in collaboration with Chandigarh College of Architecture and Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, brings a mega dance show — Illumination-Divya Drishti. The event will witness performances by Nandita Puri from the Jaipur Gharana and Gauri Sharma Tripathi from the Lucknow Gharana, along with their group. “The idea is to give the audience a taste of two leading gharanas and their special characteristics in performances,” shares Nandita.

Kathak is like homecoming for her. “From when I saw Roshan Kumari first time on stage to even now when I see a kathak performance, there is a sense of belongingness,” she adds. Nandita also credits her parents, Tribhuvan Nath Puri and Primila Puri, for her success. “While Punjabi society at large did not see dance as a respectable career option when I started, my father told me about the dedication that this field required and that if I pursued it, I should whole-heartedly focus on it.”

Her father supported his wife’s Primila’s career in the same way. “My mother started learning classical music at the age of 33, after four children, and became a renowned classical singer of the Patiala Gharana.”

Screen journey

Ask her on what made her take up acting and Nandita says, “I went to choreograph a show, Uppanyas, which was aired on Doordarshan, and the director offered me a role.” It was the role of a dancer and Nandita did it with ease. “It was as if I did TV to support my career as a dancer. I vividly recall that I got an invite to perform at Khajuraho Festival, but the remuneration offered was falling short by Rs 10,000. No dancer says no to Khajuraho! I was doing a series Campus at that time and used my savings from it to perform at the festival.” Some remarkable roles came Nandita’s way later and she continued her acting as well as kathak journey together.

Calling Chandigarh home for over a decade now, Nandita continues supporting Triveni Sangeet Sabha — a non-profit cultural organisation promoting classical music and dance — started by her parents.

She is hoping to have her husband Dan Dhanoa, actor and sailor, expand the organisation’s domain to art as well. During a sailing expedition, Dan contracted Covid-19 and was hospitalised in Brazil, but the couple came out stronger. “It was a very dark time. He told me not to sound our parents. In a hospital where they didn’t speak English, communication was difficult but he managed it all.” Nandita loves dance and music, while Dan admires paintings and sculptures; together they complement each other well!

Her affair with the camera continues too. Munzir Naqvi’s Sehar, in which she played a small role opposite Pankaj Kapur, is due to release on OTT. She is also passionately working on a ballet that is themed around the healing power of music: “I want to bring classical music and dance together for this and make people aware about how powerful our music is.”

(Illumination will be held on November 12 at Chandigarh College of Architecture-12, from 6 pm onwards)

Making a cultural difference

The duration of the programme, Illumination, will be two hours, comprising Shiv Tandav, nritta (pure dance), kavit, abhinaya and a tarana by the famous Sufi mystic Amir Khusrao. The nine artistes coming from Mumbai include Gauri Sharma Tripathi, Tarini Tripathi, Neha Masurkar; Pt Kalinath Mishra (tabla), Vaibhav Mankhad (vocal and harmonium), Alka Gujar (sitar), Aditi Bhagwat (dance), Harshada Jambekar and Nandita Puri. Accompanying will be Chandrika Budhiraja (vocal) and Romi (flute). Both artistes hail from Chandigarh.

Gauri Sharma Tripathi, will display the complexities of the Lucknow style with dexterity and nazakat, fundamental to the Lucknow Gharana. She started her journey under the tutelage of her mother, Padma Sharma, who nearly 60 years ago, under learnt from doyens such as Mohanrao Kalyanpurkar, Shambhu Maharaj, Lachchan Maharaj and Birju Maharaj, and established a base for her daughter, Gauri, and granddaughter Tarini Tripathi.