Swar Sandhya institute of performing Arts & Gymnastics Academy
gate no-3, Plot no. 2, Bisrakh Rd, behind Arihant Arden, near Ecovillage, Sector 1, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201306, India
http://www.swarsandhya.com/
Swar Sandhya Institute of Performing Arts & Gymnastics Academy is perhaps one of the few spaces in India where a tanpura, a horizontal bar, a tabla and a balance beam coexist under the same roof. Founded in 2010 by vocalist–choreographer couple Dr. Radhika Deshpande and Sandeep Rao, the institute started as a modest two-room studio in the basement of a heritage bungalow in Pune’s Sadashiv Peth. In just over a decade it has expanded into a 9,000-sq-ft, concentric‐circle campus that wraps around an old banyan tree, creating a natural amphitheatre that glows with fairy-lights during night concerts. Here, the scent of agarbatti floats through the air alongside chalk dust from the gymnastics mats; both are regarded as equally sacred.
The performing-arts wing is anchored around a 200-seat wooden auditorium whose acoustic panels are hand-painted with Pahari miniatures. Riyaz rooms are named after raags—Yaman, Bihag and Jog are on the ground floor; Charukeshi, Hamsadhwani and Behag overlook the canopy on the mezzanine. Every Monday at 6 a.m., students gather for the traditional “Sur-Sadhana” session: forty minutes of collective tanpura drones followed by silent breathing practice, believed to align lung capacity needed both for khayal taans and tumbling runs. The faculty roster lists A-grade All India Radio artists for Hindustani vocal, tabla and sitar, along with visiting Fulbright scholars for world-music labs. Certification courses run from “Prarambh” (foundation) through “Praveen” (diploma) in three-year cycles, mapped to the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya syllabus.
Equally robust is the Gymnastics Academy, whose spring-loaded floor and foam pit are flanked by murals of Nataraja in motion. Head coach Monica DSouza—formerly an Indian national vault finalist—runs a parallel curriculum: Artistic gymnastics, rhythmic ribbons for dancers, and what the institute calls “Natya-Tonic,” a playful crossover where floor routines morph into Bharatnatyam jathis. The conservatory thus produces bharatanatyam dancers who can stick an aerial cartwheel landing, and gymnasts who score extra artistry points for expressive hand mudras. A special “Open Sundays” initiative since 2018 has introduced over 3,000 neighbourhood children to ukulele basics and vault drills at no charge, cultivating a grassroots audience.
Annual calendars highlight twin showpieces: “Swar-Mudra” in December—an evening where a tarana in raag Hamsadhwani segues into a rhythmic-gymnastics ball routine—and the summer “Acro-Mela,” where parents picnic under the banyan while watching yogasanas unfold on parallel bars accompanied by sarod sargams. Fees follow a sliding scale; scholarships sponsored by a local tech park cover 40 % of seats, ensuring that the child of a sabzi-wala trains beside a software architect’s daughter.
Visitors enter through a teak door inscribed with “शरीरम् आद्यं खलु धर्मसाधनम्”—the body indeed is the first instrument of dharma—and leave to a chorus of mangal aarti mingling with the satisfied laughter of children chalking up for one more round on the uneven bars.
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- Published: July 26, 2025
