For the love of dance

Veteran Odissi dancer Jhelum Paranjape has nurtured talent across all stratas of society for 25 years in the city On her 60th birthday as the institute gears up to celebrate its silver jubilee the dancer shares her journey in her dance studio situated on a covered portion of the terrace of a school building that is in the care of Sane Guruji Arogya Trust an educational charitable trustJhelum Paranjape right and her son Bunkim standing in yellow at the NCPA Mudra Dance Festival this yearldquoIt was formerly a Marathimedium school that six years ago started an Englishmedium one Apart from educational activities it has Odissi Bharatanatyam Tabla music judo karate gymnastics a dental clinic an Ayurvedic clinic salon and more for the underprivileged Thus everything is subsidisedrdquo shares a beaming ParanjapeThe dance studio of Smitalay has the paint peeling off from the walls PicAbhishek RaneThe veteran dancer apprises that the Trust has been a part of her growing up years as she saw her parentsrsquo involvement in the charitable trust The other key influence of her childhood was Smita Patil who later became a renowned actress as is now public knowledge discovered by none other than Shyam BenegalSmita Patil overlooks Kelucharan Mohapatra doing Paranjapersquos makeup before her Manch PraveshThe Wonder YearsAn unconventional Indian Classical danseuse Paranjape started her training in Odissi at the age of 20 post her Masters in Statistics She recalls ldquoThere were three of us who had started learning under Guru Shankar Behera Although Smita learnt only for six months before she was discovered for films I due to my Folk background was termed exuberant and the other friend soft due to her Manipuri lineage But Smita was considered perfectrdquo Soon enough Paranjape graduated to learning under the legendary dancer Kelucharan Mohapatra who she admits ldquoset her on to the love of OdissirdquoGuru Kelucharan Mohapatra with his disciple Jhelum ParanjapeBlessing in disguiseParanjape had her Manch Pravesh the initiating ceremony of a dancer to stage in 1983 when Patil volunteered to not only act as a compere for the function but helped her in designing the brochure Five years later the dancer suffered a major setback in the form of a slip disc while touring the US In a total of 30 performances it was at the juncture when only five were left that Paranjape realised that she needed to go home and salvage her leg let alone foreseeing a dance career in the futureldquoSmita died in 1986 In rsquo88 after the slip disc I was in bed After that one month of rest and practically doing nothing I thought of opening Smitalay which means an abode for SmitardquoTalking shopSpreading the love for the form had has its own underside of hardships ldquoWhen I started learning the Classical dance it was very expensive to learn and I thought of passing it on to children who didnrsquot even know what it was about The classes started at 5 a month then which is now stretched to 50 a month This area was filled with slums earlier Even now many kids whose mothers are domestic helps canrsquot afford the feesrdquoParanjape pauses to reminisce how she fixed rehearsals of the institutersquos first public performance by considering everyonersquos schedule to collect water for their daily needs Not only this the dancer has always maintained a large group of students that avail concessions In fact the maximum that anyone pays for the class is 2000 per month Zipping back to today this has reaped an achievement of having three teachers from lessprivileged backgrounds at the institute who cannot be paid a decent sumNot only that the school has a tiled floor that has harmed the noted dancerrsquos knees ldquoI donrsquot want my studentsrsquo knees to go bad We want to renovate this space and have a proper wooden floor Plus we need to waterproof it from the outside as we canrsquot afford water leaking on to itrdquo rues ParanjapeMore imminently the school needs funds for a fiveday festival to celebrate the schoolrsquos milestone ldquoThe dates are fixed for October 11 12 17 18 and 19 across four venues in Mumbai mdash Nehru Centre Ravindra Natya Mandir Savarkar Hall and Bhavanrsquos Cultural Centre We are having six different productions of ours revivedrdquo shares ParanjapeBring in the crowdsElaborating about her crowdfunding idea she explains ldquoThis year students are welcome to approach corporates but friends family and wellwishers can contact as many people so the word spreads One corporate gives donation they become aware of it and soon itrsquos over But tapping into a network of friends and their friends who arenrsquot aware of Odissi or Smitalay leads to more people coming to know about whatrsquos happening and getting interested in learning toordquoTill October 9At 5V1 Sane Guruji Arogya Mandir Santacruz WCall 26615463Log on to wwwindiegogocom