Soul Connection

It was a quirk of fate that led Jayanti Mukherjee to her vocation. The 45-year-old had been struck by Meningitis as a child and the doctor advised her parents to put her in for vocational training to take her mind off strenuous academic course work. Mukherjee was enrolled for kathak training under Pandit Birju Maharaj and then Pandit Krishan Maharaj and Om Prakash. Now she is one of the leading exponents of the Lucknow gharana of kathak. “I wanted to learn the art form at the core level so I requested Birju Maharaj to guide me,” she says,in town for a performance at Pracheen Kala Kendra on Sunday.

Apart from being a kathak dancer,Mukherjee,a graded artist for Doordarshan,is also accomplished in various forms of folk dance. Her art has taken her far and wide with performances in the US,UK,China,Japan,Thailand,Germany and Canada. “Audience from other countries love and respect classical dance as they find it engaging,” says the Kolkata-based government employee who runs a dance school called Nritya Pyassi Perfoming Art Centre to encourage young learners.