ART CAN BE A HEALER IN TROUBLED TIMES

SAYS SHRUTI GOPAL, DANSEUSE AND DANCE TEACHER, ASSOCIATED WITH PUNYAH DANCE COMPANY. RŌMAL LĀISRAM CATCHES UP WITH HER TO FIND OUT MORE ON HOW PERFORMANCE ART SCHOOLS ARE DEALING WITH THE LOCKDOWN…

- RŌMAL LĀISRAM

WITH COVID-19 LOCKDOWN AFFECTING EVERYONE, HOW HAS IT AFFECTED DANCE SCHOOLS SUCH AS YOURS?

The effect has been severe in every single sphere across the globe and ours has been no different. We have all had to shut down the physical space in which we were teaching. We have resumed taking classes online now but it’s nothing close to teaching and correcting students in person but with the present situation this is the best we can do. We also give them a little extra research work or choreography to work on so they can make use of this time to understand the form a little better. We have also started an online workshop series on the Punyah Dance Company website which involves detailed teaching of pieces including sessions by scholars and musicians to understand a piece in depth. Parshwanath Upadhye has already done two modules of it and the response has been overwhelming. Performances have all been cancelled. We were just starting a three month US tour of our production Abha. The team had been working on it for close to a year now and most of the shows were already sold out. We also released Abha for online viewing on our website for people across the globe since travel with the production does not seem possible in the near future. Like us, across the globe, a lot of the artistes have had to cancel much awaited performances.