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It was some 10 years ago that Mallika decided to motivate a group of women to join Darpana’s Bharatanatyam course. In this process, other debates around ageism in general, the value of art for every individual, the meaning of roles such as wife and mother, body shaming, and why we dance at all, get tossed up and resolved in everyday interactions. Across the world, though, teachers and students are countering this trend.ĭarpana Academy, the institute founded by the late Mrinalini Sarabhai and now headed by her daughter, renowned dancer and activist Mallika Sarabhai, is one of India’s few major institutions for dance instruction where age is no bar. These layers have ensured that Bharatanatyam is associated with limited definitions of feminine beauty as well as expectations of coyness in the depiction of a woman’s emotions, along with youthful looks and the assumption that marriage signals a stop to a dancer’s performance ambitions.Ĭonsequently, even as a hobby, it is weighed down by ageist perceptions. Though the damage caused by that process is finally being debated, today the art is an inalienable part of the national vocabulary, draped in layers of social acceptance - and etiquette. Over the 20th century, as Bharatanatyam was taken away from the hereditary practitioners and installed in the realm of socially advantaged communities of ‘upper’ caste and economically advantaged classes, it became a hobby rather than a profession for millions. In mentioning her concern that her daughter should feel free to make her own decisions in life, Krina sums up the anxieties of millions of women negotiating their ways in a world that is fast-changing, yet rigid when it comes to certain social mores. I wanted to do it myself, and in the process, be an inspiration for my daughter, so that she would, in turn, do whatever she wanted to do in life,” says Krina Calla, a lawyer practicing at Gujarat high court.įor the past five years, Krina has been learning Bharatanatyam at Ahmedabad’s Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, a pursuit she took up at the age of 43.

But, I didn’t want to put that kind of burden on her. “When I had my daughter, I did wish that she would be able to fulfil the dreams I could not.