Article - On being mentored and the Pratiroop Project: Voices in my head - Mythili Maratt Anoop

There are life-changing moments in every dancer's path. For me, meeting Guru Sadanam Balakrishnan and getting an opportunity to perform in his Radha Madhavam for the Kinkini Festival was one such moment. With just two full days of practice with the artists, we went onstage. After the performance, I asked Asan for his feedback and what he told me reaffirmed my faith in myself, on the one hand, and my thirst to learn more, train more and fix my flaws. There were unkind words from gurus earlier and doublespeak from a critic that had wounded me. But even in those few days of interaction, I saw many gleams of what a brilliant teacher Balakrishnan Asan was, apart from being a great artiste. To become a teacher, a generosity of spirit is an unnegotiable criterion and Asan had an abundance of that. I could see that his keen observations and suggestions would be spot on, and his comments were never of the kind that would break my spirit, or make me wonder if I should stop dancing altogether.

If Asan's presence for me was a quiet luminous lake of many riches for me to delve into, Guru Vyjayanthi Kashi was a brilliant storm of all things benign. Always probing, never letting me lapse into a lazy spell, unrelenting in her comments and expectations, but with infinite patience. She wanted the best from everyone, the script, the musicians, and me of course! She would never settle for less, and that was a life lesson for me!

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