A Bharatanatyam dancer who developed an interest in teaching dance, Divya worked hard and kept her practice going in order to achieve her dream. She believes in patience and practice.

Divya Dave is a Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher. She completed her master's in Bharatanatyam from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya, Mumbai.

Divya’s journey in Bharatanatyam started when she was five years old. She used to be a chubby girl. Her doctor suggested her parents put her into any physical activity. So, they put her in Bharatanatyam classes at her school. She used to go to dance class every Sunday morning.

After finishing her course, she told her teacher that she wanted to learn more. She started helping her teacher and continued her classes. When she was in 10th grade, her parents told her to leave dance classes and focus on her studies, but she was not ready to quit. She wanted to teach Bharatanatyam in future. Later, she got to know about Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya. She took admission at Nalanda after her 10th grade and completed her graduation and master's from there.

Sharing about her journey, Divya says her journey was not easy as, after joining Nalanda, she had to practice for three to four hours a day. She also started teaching Bharatanatyam. However, support from her family helped her face challenges.

Talking about her mistakes, Divya says we make mistakes at every stage of our lives, and we must learn from them. She also made mistakes in her life, and she undid them or learned from them. She believes that she is here today because of the mistakes she made in the past, as mistakes have taught her many things in her life.

Sharing her achievements, Divya says she founded ‘Nrityangana’ in 2006 with just three students. Now ‘Nrityangana’ has its own studio and teaches over 100 students, which is a huge achievement for her.

When asked about her role models, Divya says she has many in her life. She takes inspiration from her parents, her brother, and later her sister-in-law, as they struggled a lot in their lives. Furthermore, she also considers her school's Bharatanatyam teacher, Kanak Rele, Uma, and Vaibhav Arekar, as her role models.

In her free time, Divya likes to paint and does other types of art too. She also likes to listen to music and read books.

When asked how she deals with stress, Divya says teaching dance is her only way out of stress as it keeps her going, and she still likes to teach dance more than anything else.

Divya’s life mantra is patience and practice.