ADOR Loveshots Conversation on 'Pursuing Passion for Kathak Dancing' with Shinjini Kulkarni Ji

As a part of EPISODE-25 of ADOR LOVE SHOTS, enjoy an Interesting conversation between Udit Shah - CEO of Ador Dating, on the topic of 'Pursuing Passion for Kathak Dancing' with Shinjni Kulkarni - Kathak Dancer, TEDx Speaker and Granddaughter of Pt Birju Maharaj.

Please share a brief about you and your journey as a professional dancer and your life-experience as a part of the same

I started learning when I was 3 years old, I got on stage when I was 8. I thought dance as a passion and not as a profession. I had to choose between Dancing and Civil services, post which I decided that there is nothing more valuable to me than spending my time in dancing.

Dancing requires lots of dedication, persistence and patience; how do you manage to follow your hobby along with your daily routine

I give my entire day to dance, just as a person gives entire day from 9 to 5 – I give entire day to choreography, I dedicate my whole day to practice, choreography and creating new pieces. So, there is no question on how many hours of work can I do. Just as a corporate person is never off the laptop, off the line – in the similar way I consider I should never be off the taal

If you had a chance to spend 1 hour with one professional dancer, who would he/she will be?

Apart from my grandfather with whom I got a lot of time luckily, if there is one current dancer then he is Akram Khan who is a contemporary dancer in Lucknow. Getting a tour in his mind is probably the most fascinating thing for me as a dancer

Shinjini Kulkarni is grand daughter of Pt. Birju Maharaj

Why traditional dance forms like Kathak and Bharatnatyam are utmost important for youth to learn in their initial years?

Any classical dance form is not just teaching you the art itself but it is teaching you lot of character values. A Classical Dance Form is not something that you can learn in just 2 months or 3 months – you have to give minimum 7-8 years of your life to be able to understand. It teaches you discipline – how to do Riaz every day for hours and hours together to perfect the same thing over and over again. It teaches you team-building, when you do group work how do you cover up each other. It also teaches you lot of calmness, without meditation – without being in touch with your inner self – the dance form is never complete.

What are the easiest ways for youth to learn basics of dancing from comfort of their home online?

Enroll yourself in any online class, however I will not suggest you to learn from YouTube tutorials, because I believe that a guide, a mentor or teacher plays a huge role – you can possibly learn the step but how to correctly learn the step and where to apply it is something that only a teacher can teach you. So, if you want to learn it from home – there are multitude of online classes that are showing great results in the recent time, you can enroll yourself in those.

What are your tips for women to balance between following their passion and daily routine?

My tip for all those women who are doing this as a hobby and who have tough time managing their daily routine – I would say that whole day you are doing things because they are required to be done but then there must be one aspect of your day where you should be doing things for yourself. Sometimes it must be for non-monetizing reasons. Everything that you do should not be of some monetary value, some things must be done so that they bring joy.

Your Top 3 favourite Dancers in India

· Geeta Chandran – Bharatnatyam

· Madhvi Mudgal Ji – Odissi

· Aditi Manguldas- Kathak

Fun and Rapid-Fire Round on Ador Love shots

Udit Shah: If you had to choose between Dancing in front of 10,000 audience or Dancing with any Bollywood star - what would you choose?

Shinjni Kulkarni Ji: I would choose audience of 10,000 since there I am the star and not sharing lime-light with anyone else

Udit Shah: Your favourite dancer in your favourite dance form

Shinjni Kulkarni Ji: Favourite Dance form is BharatNatyam and all-time favourite dancer of Bharat Natyam is Yamini Krishna Murthi Ji

Udit Shah: Your favourite dances step ?

Shinjni Kulkarni Ji: A “Shimmi” always improves your mood so that will be the favourite dance step and even a couple of thumkas for that matter

SHIMMI Dance Step Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iMwrNuXikA

Udit Shah: How a month without dancing would look like for you?

Shinjni Kulkarni Ji: Up until a decade back – a month without dance was easily imaginable but today a month without dance would be like living in a submarine underwater. I would say that a Month of No Dancing would amount to A Month of Daily Therapy.

Thank you for your amazing answers. It was fun having you on Ador Loveshots