Vidha Lal is a multifaceted Kathak exponent. She is a disciple and daughter-in-law of renowned guru and SangeetNatakAkademy Awardee GeetanjaliLal of Jaipur Gharana. Vidha has emerged as a rising star in the field of Kathak. She is an empanelled artist of Indian Council For Cultural Relations (Iccr) and a graded artist from Delhi Doordarshan.
In a recent interview with Abraxas NU, Vidha gets candid about her professional and personal life.
Excerpts from the interview:
From where did you start your journey? What made you choose dance as a career and how old were you when you realised dancing was your passion?
I started my journey towards dance as a student at Kathak Kendra, The National Institute of Kathak, New Delhi, in the year 1989.
Being a dancer, were you interested in studies at school? If yes, what was your favourite subject?
Yes I was very much interested in studies. Rather dance helped me to go through with it as it increased my level of concentration and disciplined me. This was very much evident as I was the topper at my school in 12th Class board examinations.
My favourite subjects at school were Hindi and Geography.
How did your family support you through the journey?
My family was always there for me. It was my father who got me enrolled into the institute when I was only 6 years old along with my two more sisters (one is elder to me and the other is younger than me) with the thought that, “Along with studies, my daughters should excel in co-curricular activities also.” My mother has a very big role in making it possible for me to continue learning Kathak as she, without fail would regularly take me to the institute which was 13 kms away from my house. She was so considerate about this and would never let me fall back. But no one knew that this art form would actually become the reason for my life.
How did you meet your husband Mr.AbhimanyuLal? Did you always want to get married to a Kathak dancer?
Well, Abhimanyu being the son and disciple of my Guru GeetanjaliLalji, had entered into my life at a really early stage. Initially being the inspiring senior in the class, he then took form of an awe-inspiring dance partner and a really good friend who was really supportive, and then finally as my husband.
What were the hurdles that you faced all these years?
Being really lucky enough to have been trained under a stalwart like Guru GeetanjaliLalji, who had been incredibly supportive throughout my learning period and my professional period. She took me to a lot of places to perform and gave me a lot of stage exposure. Then at the age of 16, I had become a part of the professional group that was touring round Europe. Plus, I could hardly see any of my hurdles as I was always occupied with my practice and did sheer hardwork for my present and future.
Why did you choose Kathak out of so many dance forms? Any specific reason or inspiration behind it?
I was too young to realise that I have been enrolled into a Kathak Institute, since I was only 6 years old.
But eventually when I got myself accustomed to this art form, I felt that I am blessed to be a lineage to such an incredible art form.
Youth today is more into hip hop and contemporary style. How can we make the Kathak dance form more interesting for the youth?
The youth might be more into western forms like hip hop and contemporary, thinking that they are more interesting and catchy, but that is because they haven’t seen the other side of the coin. But to a layman’s dismay, the amount of students interested in learning the Indian classical forms is much higher than the ones who are into western forms. And all the credit goes to the media for not being able to depict the actual graph to the layman.
Do you think that westernisation is affecting the dance industry to such an extent that eventually there would be no Kathak dance in the future? What do you think is the future of Kathak dance in India?
Westernisation might be affecting the dance industry, but the ones who are into the classical forms are not affected by that as all they can think of is expanding the Indian Classical forms and making it reach to everyone.
I being a Kathak artist could never think that Kathak might not exist in the future, not even in my wildest dreams ever! Kathak is slowly and eventually getting to be known more and more by the people around and the future is definitely bright and glowing since I am doing my very bit and many other organisations like SPIC MACAY and IRCEN are doing a lot to promote the Indian Classical forms amongst the youth.
What are the five best places you would suggest for learning kathak?
Not five, but I would suggest only one and that is Kathak Kendra, The National Institute of Kathak, New Delhi.
What are your plans for the future?
My plans for the future would be to expand Kathak and make it reach out to all the spheres with my recently formed dance company that is AV Dance Company: Kathak Resonance and be a part of more renowned festivals that are being covered by the media and spread the resonance of Kathak throughout.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
In the next 5 years and in all the coming years, one would always see me promoting and expanding Kathak, since I don’t want to get recognition only as an artist, but also as the medium who makes the connection between Kathak and the world possible.
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