From your memories of forging a new path for dance in India, when you started dancing, it seemed difficult enough for a man to enter the classical dance world and stick around. In your case, you explored something new and unnamed - could you talk about that experience?
I was trained in Kathak. Growing up in Jamshedpur, one took part in annual school productions. But there were no solo performances, because there was no scope for that at the school. When I finished school and was serious about dance, my parents refused, because they felt I should study further. I wasn't allowed to train, but I rehearsed what I had learnt and the solo parts I had played in the dance dramas at my school. I started watching other dance forms in Bombay. I noticed that there were many innovations in theatre, music and the visual arts. When Asha (Uttara Asha Coorlawala) returned to Bombay and was looking for dancers, I worked with her and told her that I would like to study at the Martha Graham School, where she was training at that time.
I was lucky to have had forward-thinking parents. After my graduation, I told them that I still wanted to be a dancer. Neither they nor I knew the journey I was going to embark on...that pursuing dance would become the purpose of my life.
