Ta Dha Dance Studio Pvt. Ltd. – Best Kathak Dance Classes in Noida, Ace City | Led by Monika Jain | Classical Dance Experts

Ta Dha Dance Studio Pvt. Ltd. – Best Kathak Dance Classes in Noida, Ace City | Led by Monika Jain | Classical Dance Experts
E-1411, Ace City Noida Extension, Sector 1, Aimnabad, west, Greater Noida, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Uttar Pradesh 201318, India
https://www.tadhastudio.com/
Step into Ta Dha Dance Studio Pvt. Ltd., widely acknowledged as Noida’s best address for Kathak and located on the second floor of Ace City’s commercial plaza—and the first thing that greets you is the gentle intrusion of the tabla’s teentaal against the hum of the metro overhead. Founder–director Guru Monika Jain, a disciple of Jaipur and Lucknow gharanas, has distilled 23 years of concert experience into an academy that functions exactly like a gurukul compressed inside a six-room, 1 800 sq ft loft cooled to Kathak-friendly 22 °C.

Pass the reception—where you sign in barefoot on a raw-silk registry and exchange street shoes for studio bells—and the corridor opens into three climate-controlled chambers. The largest hall (600 sq ft) is floored with 11 mm shock-absorbent maple configured in pale ochre and white in the exact ratio of Jaipur’s chaugun lehra. One mirrored wall is flued to prevent vocal slap-back, while two opposite walls hold 28 archival photographs: Sitara Devi, Birju Maharaj, and an early monochrome of Monika-ji executing a tatkar sequence at Natarani in 1999. A slender tanpura stands in a lit alcove; students touch its strings for sūtra dhyan before class.

Classes here follow a precise Vinyasa: one-hour Riyaz warm-up of footwork (tatkar) with ankle bells graded from 150 g to 450 g, followed by gat-nikas and finally abhinaya on a 6 x 8 ft wooden proscenium intended to mimic old Mughal courts. Monika-ji switches between counting matras vocally, sliding a thin baton across a bronze hand cymbal, and using Yamaha HS-5 monitors to loop pre-sets of Pt. Suresh Talwalkar’s thekas in 8–16–32-beat clusters. She is assisted by three resident accompanists—tabla artist Aman Deep Singh, vocalist Diksha Sharma, and violinist Sagar Raj—who rotate between classes so music is never pre-recorded. Even beginners thus learn to respond to live Laharas and manage Thah, Dugun and Chaugun on call.

The syllabus spans eight progressive levels, officially validated by Prayag Sangeet Samiti and Gandharva Mahavidyalaya diplomas. Theory sessions are held in an adjoining library whose Siemens LED pendants hover over 400 rare books—Acharya K.C. Brahaspati’s thesis, tattered copies of Nṛitya Shastra—and analog reel-to-reel tapes Mirabai Chattopadhyay cut for All India Radio. Students are encouraged to archive their own solo recordings on an SSD drive that syncs via Wi-Fi directly to Monika-ji’s MacBook during adjustments.

Annual events include “Chaturang” held every March at Shilp Rang Mandir where senior disciples perform tarana in Chautal followed by a contemporary collaboration with flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo, and “Guru Purnima Vinyasa”, a twelve-hour overnight jugalbandi relayed live on the studio’s YouTube channel (17 k subscribers). Those wishing smaller platforms can step onto the retractable 4 x 6 ft mehfil dais hidden under the library rug, where at the end of each quarter parents sit cross-legged to a micro-recital and evening tea served in kulhads.

Admission is audition-agnostic; what matters is promise, discipline, and willingness to train barefoot. Batches open at age five (“Srishti”), span teen stream (“Yuvani”), and extend to an active 60-plus vanilla-coffee group called “Rewind”. Monthly fee ranges from ₹3 500 to ₹6 000, but scholarships named after the Guru’s own grandmother, Shanti Bai Jain, subsidize up to three underprivileged wards yearly.

Even on humid July nights the studio never shuts early; the faint ruffle of ghungroos floats across Ace City boulevard well past 9:30 p.m., promising that rhythm is a round-the-clock commitment.

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