Two classical dance exponents on what it takes to nurture and promote a classical form far away from its geographical home ground.

By Aishwarya Sahasrabudhe

What does it mean to introduce a classical dance to audiences unfamiliar with that form? How does a performer take productions to a stage that has never before witnessed their particular movement vocabulary? What constitutes building a community of artistes practising a dance style in a territory completely removed from its place of origin? These and many other conundrums have foregrounded the journeys of two dancers whose decades-long efforts have been dedicated towards establishing their respective classical forms in places distant from where these dances are more prominently practised.

Odissi exponent Sharmila Mukerjee arrived in the dynamic city of Bengaluru over two decades ago. She founded Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance in 2004 and has since been promoting the classical dance form, which originated in the eastern state of Odisha, across the vibrant cultural landscape of southern India. For her part, Kathak dancer and Assamese actor Meghranjani Medhi walks in her guru and mother Marami Medhi’s footsteps. She practises the northern Indian classical dance form in northeastern India, a region known for its own rich art forms. She runs Sur Sangam, a school of music and dance in Guwahati, to promote Kathak across Assam and beyond. In June 2026, the mother-daughter duo and Mukerjee will take the NCPA stage to present Kathak and Odissi recitals that offer a window into their performance practices.

Regional flavours

There have been interesting overlaps in the journeys of these intrepid artistes: they have embraced in their choreographies the regional idiom of the places they inhabit.

Years ago, when Mukerjee—a disciple of Odissi exponent Kelucharan Mohapatra—moved to Bengaluru, she was in for a cultural jolt. Much of the audience for classical dance in this city had never watched an Odissi recital as Bengaluru had only a handful of Odissi practitioners. Amidst this unfamiliarity, Mukerjee established her school in the heart of the city and, in a couple of years, Odissi began to make itself known in a region already dominated by a pre-existing classical dance scene. “Bengaluru is very cosmopolitan,” Mukerjee remarks, “I got a lot of appreciation, a lot of encouragement from gurus of other classical dances. Soon, dance festivals also started including Odissi.”

As a student, Mukerjee would undertake an overnight train journey from Kolkata to reach Mohapatra’s gurukul in Bhubaneswar. It was her comfort zone, she reminisces, as the language and culture of Kolkata and Odisha share many similarities. But moving to Bengaluru meant a linguistic and cultural challenge, which shifted her approach towards Odissi.

While her movement vocabulary remains grounded in the teachings of her guru, today, the dancer is focused on choreographing innovative productions at least every two years to keep audiences hooked. For her, language is a critical consideration. Since the local languages of southern Indian regions resonate better with Sanskrit than Odia or Bengali, the lyrical and poetic barrier is overcome with prolific usage of the former.

At the NCPA recital, Mukerjee will be showcasing a slice of Kalidas’s poem ‘Ritusamhara’ through her production Ritubhava, composed entirely of Sanskrit verses. The production premiered in early 2026 and explores four seasons: summer, monsoon, winter and spring, and dives into distinct rasas associated with each season.

Mukerjee’s repository of Odissi choreography also includes a production featuring Kannada folk tales and a narrative on the mythological character Kaikeyi. English is another language that she uses liberally. Narrations and compositions are often in English, particularly for her productions like Swan Lake which fuses a Western text with Odissi. “This is how Odissi has become popular in the south—by making it accessible and understandable to the audience,” she says.

Medhi achieves something similar with the abhinaya-centric performance she presents alongside her mother to the music of her father Joy Prakash Medhi who is a composer and vocalist. Medhi has combined Surdas’s endearing bhajan ‘Maiya Mori Main Nahin Makhan Khayo’ with Kamrupi Lokgeet, a popular form of northeastern folk music, for this segment. The lyrical composition describes the soulful episode of makhan chori integral to the Kathak repertoire. “It’s a real mother and child depicting that,” she says, noting how the emotional connection makes the performance more relatable. Retaining the core of Kathak’s movement vocabulary, they present abhinaya that seamlessly blends Assamese folk melody with a traditional Hindustani form.

Uncharted waters

A recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, Medhi opines that it was her mother whose perseverance brought Kathak to Guwahati from northern India. Now that it has woven itself into Assamese culture, Medhi finds the award to be a recognition of this ongoing effort at a national level.

When Assamese artistic practices were immersed in folk forms and classical styles like Sattriya, Marami Medhi stuck to her guns and continued to train under the Lucknow-based Kathak artiste Surendra Saikia. Eventually, the mother and daughter began receiving tutelage from the Kathak stalwart Birju Maharaj. Today, their dance institute has been running for over 25 years in Guwahati and boasts around 300 students.

This process has seldom been without its challenges.

“Kathak is a live art form,” Medhi says, “and we have a scarcity of people who play the tabla. We don’t even have a sarangi artiste here.” Mukerjee shares a similar concern. In Bengaluru, she often faces a dearth of musicians who play the mardala, a percussion instrument integral to an Odissi performance. “Most of the time, they come in from Odisha,” she confirms. However, according to the two artistes, rapid digital connectivity, social media platforms and online workshops have made things smoother.

Mukerjee makes a yearly trip to Odisha to source fabric prints for her costumes, but she has a whole community of tailors and designers ready to work on Odissi couture in Bengaluru.

Medhi designs her own costumes in Guwahati along with her mother, and considering the budget, leans on her own well-oiled ecosystem of tailors, accompanying musicians and other fellow artistes ahead of any recital.

Many communication barriers have been overcome following the Covid-19 pandemic too. Mukerjee notes that online exchanges keep her creativity flowing. While choreographing Swan Lake, she conducted a conference with American artistes to discuss how Western themes can be adapted to Odissi.

Besides, the effort to promote their respective forms continues. “Being an actor,” Medhi says, “when I get invited to any kind of cultural programme or as a guest, they think that I will perform to a film song. But I never do that.” This conscious choice to showcase Kathak means that now, people in Assam’s deepest regions also recognise this dance. In Guwahati, her institute remains the epicentre of a growing community of Kathak dancers. A sense of pride is evident as Medhi concludes her story, emphasising the significance of carrying forward, against many odds, a rich, non-native legacy.

This article was originally published in the June 2026 issue of ON Stage.