Svetana Kanwar

No one thought Svetana Kanwar would become a dancer. She wasn’t a natural, she didn’t have the petite, delicate build expected of dancers but was strong and tall, with a broad frame; she was always the last person to pick up choreographed steps. “At 18, when I announced that I wanted to give up my studies and pursue dancing full time, people were surprised,” says Kanwar, who looked at dance as therapy to help her through a rough patch in her life. “I’ve always been a stubborn person. Because I was told I couldn’t do it, I set out to prove people wrong.”