Nrityanjali Kathak Dance Classes
Ajnara Le Garden, Gautam Buddha Rd, Panchsheel Greens 2, Ithaira, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201318, India
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Nrityanjali Kathak Dance Classes – Mumbai, India
Tucked away in a quiet, tree-lined by-lane of Vile Parle (West), Nrityanjali Kathak Dance Classes feels less like a neighborhood studio and more like a small temple dedicated to rhythm. The entrance is framed by an old teak architrave salvaged from a dismantled wada in Pune; tiny brass ghungroos stitched into its lattice jingle softly every time the door opens, alerting Guru Ranjana Pathak that her students have arrived. Inside, 650 square feet of polished “chunas” (traditional cow-dung and red-oxide floor) give underfoot just enough to cushion a week’s worth of tatkar and yet preserve the clarity of ankle bells. A waist-high rosewood railing along three sides serves both as barre and as shrine shelf—lined with fading photographs of Nrityanjali’s stalwarts: Sitara Devi glowing beside a young Ranjana, Birju Maharaj grinning mid-tehai, and a 1993 batch of teenagers who now teach in New Jersey and Rotterdam.
Classes run six days a week across five levels—from Parichay (introduction) to Nipun (post-diploma repertory). The music set-up is deliberately low-tech: a four-decade-old Telefunken two-in-one that still plays Gwalior and Benares recordings on chrome cassette, an electronic tanpura for alaap practice, and a Bluetooth speaker reserved only for contemporary scores when the senior batch choreographs experimental pieces. Students bring their own ghungroos—Ranjana insists on Varanasi-strung 200-bell sets for seniors; juniors begin with 50 until their Pada-s can articulate clear consonants. Once a month, veteran tabla accompanist Pt. Rajendra Nakod arrives for a Saturday “Riyaz Sabha” where dancers must recite tukdas and parans in teentaal and jhaptaal before they are allowed to dance them.
At the far end of the studio, trapdoors open onto a mezzanine storing silk brocade angarakhas, antique farshi pyjamas once worn by courtesans of Awadh, and stacks of “chakkar-lehengas” whose circumference is measured by the number of flares—150 for beginners, 540 for arangetram candidates. Beside them sits the library: first-edition copies of “Sangeet Natak Academy Journal—Kathak Edition,” Narayan Prasad’s tattered tala notations, and Guru Ranjana’s own hand-written diaries chronicling four decades of ganda-bandh discipleship under Pt. Debu Chaudhuri. A small utility room doubles as a miniature ayurvedic clinic; alum stone for blistered soles, sandalwood oil for burning ankle joints, and a vessel of copper water boiled with nagarmotha to refresh tired feet after double-speed laya drills.
Every student, whether a five-year-old in pastel leotards or a corporate executive squeezing in after work, begins practice by touching the floor and then the gurukul brick inset with Ranjana’s initial “ॐ नृत्यंजलयै नमः” calligraphed in liquid silver. Sunday mornings close with the faint smell of loban and filter coffee moving up the stairwell as parents and grandparents crowd the verandah, clapping along when Guru-ji lifts the tempo and the tabla rolls thunder into the monsoon sky.
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- Published: August 25, 2025
