Corona and the importance of learning classical dance to fight

Pandemic has brought up lots of uncertainty to the lives of everyone. Mental health and physical fitness have become a matter of concern for many. Wether it is younger children, adults or seniors, the pandemic has been chaotic for one and all.

In these testing times, let us look at the stories of those few who decided to fight corona and the depressions with the help of Bharatanatyam.

Disciples of Dr Guru Sharad Pandya have been gearing up very well and have United with dance to fight their war of corona.

His students learning Bharatanatyam with virtual classes have shared what they have felt, learnt, experienced and how they managed well to gain back confidence to live life despite the chaotic times.

Working women, young girls and students from USA, have shared their stories. Today's article features Vandana Meena, Looki Mani Das, Shivani Shah and Dr. Jigna Varia,Manik Joshi and Ananya Vasavada.

Vandana Meena hails from Rajasthan and is currently based out of Vadodara. She works as an assistant manager at a reputed company in the city. She is a thrilled young adult full of energy and enthusiasm and she choose to learn classical dance and took it up as a challenge.

She feels that Guru Sharad Pandya is having a unique methodol of imparting trianing which makes it easy for the learners to pursue this form of dance. She added that her confidence to learn and her love for the art has become stronger due to the guidance and strictness of Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya.

When she began Bharatanatyam in person just before the pandemic hit. She switched to online learning and she has loved the idea of continuing despite all odds. She gives the full credit of this to her Guru.

She had also been infected with corona. But she has said that it was the Passion of learning dance that pushes her to take home qurantine and have the mental urge to look out to continue learning. At times when she had no stamina to get up and dance, her Guru Dr. Pandya theory online classes helped her to cope up and fight against corona.

She also wants other women to be encouraged with her story and indeed her spirit of fighting the pandemic with dance as her weapon is worth reading.

Looki Mani Das comes from Assam. She is a working professional, works as a manager at a well know company in the city. As a mother and a working professional she believes it was classical dance which gave her the confidence to balance well for her work-life balance requirement. As a mother of a small child and working full time, she looked at classical dance learning as a source of time for self health, holistic healing and fitness regime.

She says that before commencing she was quite inquisitive and wasn't sure if she would be able to continue even for a month, but she quickly adds that Guru Dr. Sharad Pandya's efforts in imparting education of Bharatanatyam has been so unique that it become a Passion for her to continue learning.

She fought against corona. She continue online classes and she could feel that the resistance had improved because she started Bharatanatyam at the right time.

Now, even if she works, travels or stays at home, her routine includes Bharatanatyam trianing, in a combination of online and offline classes. For someone who tries to fight pandemic and is a mother and a working professional, Looki's story is sure something to lookout for.

Dr. Jigna Variya is an ayurvedic doctor by profession. She is 46 and comes out with a very interesting story for us to know. She was born and brought up at Palnpur and since school she was interested to learn classical dance and music.

Fast forward to now, she lives with her family and works at Vadodara since many years and classical dance has become her newest and strongest discipline routine.

She believes that she choose to start learning Bharatanatyam very late but it is still worth it as she understands the value of the importance of dance and it's benifits that can happen on the body.

She wanted to do something that can give her what meditation, yoga and music could seperately give her. Dance felt to her like a total art and a combination workout, resulting in therapeutic advantages.

She is thankful to Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya for inspiring her to practice and learn this art, despite the delayed start. She does admit that it wasn't easy for her to have the courage to begin so late in her life and that she kept procrastinating. But she says she owes it to her guru's patience that she could finally come and pursue onto her goal.

With meeting patient for ayurvedic consulting and panchakarma treatments, she finds a whole new world to her desipin and advantage as she plunged into learning something so divine now. She fought corona bravely and is back onto her feet to continue her online and offline classes with Dr. Pandya, especially as she knows and understands the anatomy very well.

Manik Joshi, is an international student of Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya. She is based at Los Angeles, U.S.A and continues online classes of Bharatanatyam, learning once again from Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya.

Manik has an extremely interesting story to share. She says, "when I am thousands of miles away from India, away from my family and friends, I was all the more worried of them than me and my current surroundings, in the times of pandemic"

She felt that she was helpless, stressed and extremely worried as she could not travel to India and felt her known people might be infected and he would be unable to help them personally. This stress and anxiety kept troubling her health and even her self confidence. She felt lack of worth and purpose but the only things that kept her going was, something to lookout for and something to depend on from her cultural roots

She felt indian dance is deeply rooted and strong and so much culturally charged, she felt therapeutic while dance to the music and healthy while sweating out. She felt very energetic usually after the classes and started getting a ray of hope as she would feel happy and satisfied because of the classes. These Bharatanatyam classes and her interaction with Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya kept her confident and updated about situation back home and of the conformity that her Guru gave that dance is an important tool to rescue one from Anxiety, depression and even heart diseases.

Though Manik hails from Baroda, she has settled in the United States of America since years now. She feels blessed to have a Guru like Dr. Pandya, whose teaching methodologies are so unique that she could not be satisfied with other classes and teachers found locally and she decided to resume her classes again with her Guru, virtually.

She looks forward to spreading her word to everyone on the fact that she felt relieved when she did her classes and it's kept her anxiety at bay. She says in a lighter note that people at her workplace also notice her presence now, as she has finally lot of positivity around her now, and the radiance due to Bharatanatyam.

She plans to visit India as soon as she can and even take a few classes in person when she visits, and continue again online, when she goes back.

Shivani Shah who is an assistant professor at one of the reputed institutions at Vadodara strongly feels that Bharatanatyam helps her stay hundred percent positive and focused towards her goals and towards her health, fitness and wellness.

She believes that the days she practices Bharatanatyam, she feels less distracted and less agitated. Her emotions are at a check. She feels energetic and happy to face her daily routine.

On a personal front, she has lots of work at home and more dependents in her family. She gets the power and strength to take care of all her responsibilities efficiently only when she has her own practice sessions.

Dr Guru Sharad Pandya had been very encouraging and supportive and strict with practice at the same time. According to Shivani this is a rare combination and can be truly helpful to those who are looking out for genuinely learning classical dance.

At the end of the day, when she would have finished taken her academic lectures, finished her research work, house hold chores and attending to her child and his needs, she waits for her dance lessons, which according to her, is the brightest part of her day. And she concludes by saying that she got courage to fight corona only because she knew and experienced the benifits of learning and practicing classical dance and that too from a Guru who is a strict disciplinarian.

Ananya Vasavada is one of the youngest International students of Dr. Guru Sharad Pandya. She lives in the U.S.A and is a school going girl.

Ananya's mother, Aditi Vasavada shares the story of how Ananya loves learning Bharatanatyam and is very keen to master this art form one day and how she feels closer to home, Indian culture and value, through this platform.

Learning Bharatanatyam has always helped Ananya focus more on her growth, happines and holistic development. It has helped her stay away from the boredome of lockdown or the worries of staying home doing nothing productive.

Cultural values and ethos imbibed while learning Bharatanatyam under the guidance of Dr. Sharad Pandya has helped bring out the best in Ananya. The parents are happy to have a virtual platform being used for the acquisition of knowledge in the best possible way especially during the pandemic.