(April 26, 2024) When she lost her father at the age of 15 in a car accident, the one motivation that kept her going was his wish that she would become a great dancer. Living his dream, 32-year-old, Indian classical dancer and choreographer, Aparna Satheesan has won several awards over the years. The Thiruvananthapuram native, who is settled in the US for the past 10 years, Aparna is an expert in seven Indian classical dance forms, including Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Ottam Thullal, and Kerala Nadanam. “My mother loved dancing, but my grandparents didn’t allow her to learn. So, she wanted me to train in classical dance forms,” shares Aparna during an interview with Global Indian.
The dancer, who recently received the prestigious Abhinandan Saroja National Award 2021 by the National Institute of Indian Classical Dance, believes that her career, spanning 25 years, has been blissful. “I am blessed to have learnt from several eminent dancers, including Regatta Girija Chandran, Padma Bhushan Dhananjayans, Smt Vyjayanthi Kashi, Sri. Nelliyodu Vasudevan Namboothiri, Smt. R.S Lekshmi, and Smt. Chithra Mohan,” she adds.
Young prodigy
Starting her journey at the tender age of three, the dancer shares that the more she understood Indian classical dance forms, the more she wanted to learn. Growing up with an elder sister in Kerala, Aparna says that her family was her biggest support throughout her life. “My father especially was always encouraging and supportive. I can hardly express how happy he would get watching me perform on the stage. Unfortunately, I lost him very early,” Aparna shares.
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Having won several awards right from a young age, the brilliant dancer also worked as a video jokey at leading television channels during her school and college years. “I had a busy childhood, apart from the school and regular dance classes, I also hosted several shows for the channels like AsiaNet, Soorya TV, Kairali, and AsiaNet Plus. I briefly also worked as a radio jockey and even as a dubbing artist for Malayalam movies,” shares Aparna.
Moving to the States
In 2011, after finishing her under graduation, Aparna moved to United States of America to pursue Masters in Software Engineering, at the Ball State University, Indiana. However, in the States people did not know much about Indian classical dance forms. “They thought that Bollywood dance was Indian classical,” she shares. To showcase the Indian culture Aparna decided to take part in the University events. And from there started her journey of pursuing dance professionally.
“While I was at the University, I got several opportunities to perform and won many awards. Although I had a degree, I was sure then that I cannot leave the stage ever. So, I started choreographing my performances with a mixture of various dance forms, which was highly applauded. Later, I was even able to collaborate with many artists. My first dance production “Krishna” was premiered at The Sangam event, organised by Eli Lilly Corporation, Indianapolis. I played the main role as Krishna, which got great appreciation from the artist community,” she says.
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With an idea of giving back to the society, Aparna started a non-profit organisation Samyoga Foundation India, in 2015, in memory of her late father. “Princess of Travancore inaugurated the foundation, Her Highness Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi. We have conducted several fundraising events for the welfare of society under the project “Transforming Life through Dance” in India and abroad since 2015. However, we weren’t able to organise any event in the last two years due to the pandemic.”
The show goes on…
Living happily with her husband, Hari, and a one-year-old son, in Indianapolis, Aparna is gearing up for a performance – Amma – which she considers very close to her heart. “I am a new mother, so I understand that the journey is not all cheerful. A new mother also struggles to cope up with the new phase of her life. There is a lot of mood swings, loneliness, anger and irritability that she deals with. While we always show the happy side of motherhood, we often skip these things. However, I wanted to highlight them too. The 45-minute-long dance production will premiere in Atlanta in summer. I am quite excited about that,” shares the dancer, who enjoys travelling and reading during whatever little she gets between dance practice and playing with her son.
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