A classical dancer, Kala started learning dance at the age of four. She has been working in this field for the last four decades.

Kala Srinivasan is a Bharatanatyam teacher and director at Shanmukha Arts in Mumbai.

Kala was born and brought up in Mumbai. She learned Bharatanatyam under the guidance of her guru,  Jayashree Nair.

Recalling her childhood, Kala says that it was full of culture, traditions, and art. Primarily, her mother was responsible for initiating her into a dance class when she was four years old.  Her guru gave her exposure in the form of group performances, solo performances, etc. She also started teaching dance  and eventually she gained experience in teaching, and her passion for teaching grew more instead of performing.

Talking about her journey, Kala says that she started dancing at an early age, and slowly her interest grew in this field. She used to accompany her guru to teach dance at the age of fourteen. In terms of academics, she completed CA and initially worked for an MNC. Later, she realised that her interest and passion were more towards dance. She decided to pursue dance as her main profession, and so she quit her job and started her dance institute in 2009. Now she is teaching dance to more than 100 students.

Kala shares that in her childhood, her father organised cultural programmes in Mumbai and invited many renowned personalities in the field of classical dance for the performances. She used to see the performances and imitate the steps.  Later, her guru gave her the opportunity to play different characters and perform on various stages. This kept inspiring her to dance, and she chose it as a profession.

Accepting her mistakes, Kala says that her one mistake was that she didn’t take dance as a full-time profession earlier.  Initially, she focused more on increasing the number of students in her institute. But gradually, she learned that the rat race is not beneficial, and it is important for a teacher to teach every student properly instead of focusing on the number of students. She also learned to compete with herself instead of others.

Sharing her accomplishments, Kala says that once when she was bedridden, dance helped her recover and overcome that situation, and now she is teaching dance again, which is an achievement for her. She was awarded "Best Teacher" by Dance India Magazine on International Dance Day.

Kala’s life mantra is ‘Whatever thoughts you cultivate, you tend to become that’.

Advising aspirants to her field, Kala says that patience, consistency, mental balance, and positivity are required to choose dance professionally. Dance is just like sports, so perseverance is important when learning to dance. Focus on the journey instead of the results, and give it your hundred percent to make it meaningful. In the education field, there is a lot of scope for dance. It is important to develop and improve your skills.