Acclaimed kathak dancer Nandita Puri walks us through Shringaar, her artistic abode and initiative to encourage art and culture in the city.
How do you introduce someone who needs no introduction? Well, it’s a dilemma journalists face very often. So, we leave the formalities and let our subject, the beautiful and talented dancer Nandita Puri take over. Bo to a renowned classical singer in the city, Primila Puri, Nandita Puri is a well-known face in the television industry. But as she admits so herself, she has treated acting (she was a part of many Hindi daily soaps) as her second profession, and it will always come after her first love, kathak.
![A Dancer’s Journey, Lifeinchd](/UserFiles/Nandita%20Puri%20(1).jpg)
What is Shringaar?
Puri teaches kathak at Shringaar in Sector 16 which is a beautifully crafted location; a treasure house of sorts inviting you to loosen up and explore the treasure which lies within you. Walk into her place of work, which is rightly calls her place of worship, and you tend to forget everything and automatically flow into the realm of tranquillity. Set up along with her husband Dan Dhanoa, Puri has transformed a part of the place, which is originally her mother’s house, into one serene beauty. With dance lessons taking place in the studio facing a beautiful garden, which can accommodate 180 people, it steers clear from the traffic and other disturbances. It never feels like the place is in the heart of a city. Her husband, a former actor who works in the merchant navy, is also an art collector and has been a key contributor here. “When he first came here, he got excited after seeing all the empty walls,” quips Nandita.
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![A Dancer’s Journey, Lifeinchd](/UserFiles/Nandita%20Puri%20(2).jpg)
Together, they organise exhibitions, hold workshops to revive the dying art culture in the city. Over the last three years, the two have organised eight workshops. They have also been magnanimous in opening this abode to other artistes and have experts take yoga classes at the venue in the mornings.
![A Dancer’s Journey, Lifeinchd](/UserFiles/Nandita%20Puri%20(3).jpg)
But what came as a disappointment to Puri was that most people wanted to lea Bollywood style of dance. Despite that, she kept teaching kathak and now, after two-and-a-half years, she has 14 students who train under her. “I feel I am doing my bit in a sort of effort to keep the classical traditions alive” says Nandita. “Here, they lea only classical. Sometimes we do folk to ease them off the discipline, but no Bollywood,” she adds.
![A Dancer’s Journey, Lifeinchd](/UserFiles/Nandita%20Puri%20(4).jpg)
Next on the cards for Nandita is a purely classical ballet with the concept of healing with music. While it will take her sometime to bring it Chandigarh as it will first be showcased in Mumbai, she is working on another surprise element for the city. It is going to be a workshop, which she’s busy planning for. It will bring in fitness, dance and enjoyment together. “We are going to start with slow music and yoga and moves on to Sufi dance, folk dance and classical dance. This is for those people who don’t have the time to come and lea classical but still want to lea dance,” she tells us. We can’t wait to enrol.