A classical dance Teacher, Pratima Jhalani thinks that one should endeavor to know hundred percent about their field of interest to be able to leave a legacy behind that’s worthy of being emulated by others.

Pratima Jhalani is the Founder and Director of Nrityanjali Kathak Dance Academy, Indore which she has been running for the past twenty three years.

Pratima was born in Vijaynagar, Ajmer. However, she received most of her school education in Bhilwara. She did her BA in Kathak along with History and Political Science from Indore, MP. Then she did her MA in Kathak and also stood second in the order of merit in her batch.

Pratima shares that she had been interested in Kathak since childhood. Realizing her interest in Dance, her parents encouraged her to get her education in the same field itself. She did her Bachelors and Masters in Kathak. After completing her Masters, she laid the foundation of her dance academy which has been running for the past twenty three years.

Talking about Covid, Pratima says the pandemic hit everything and the field of Dance was no exception. However, she says that fortunately online dance classes could take the place of offline dance classes.

Pratima thinks that life is full of ups and downs and she says that at times she had to struggle to give her one hundred percent to her personal and professional lives both. Besides, she also had to struggle to convince her father to let her dance. But later he allowed her to dance on the condition that she would always pursue classical dance only.

Talking about her achievements, Pratima says that being able to get respect from her students and to get recognition in society as a Dance Guru are achievements for her. Besides, she says that she was also a merit holder in her Masters. Besides, she also takes pride in the fact that some of her students have made world records in Kathak dance.

Pratima thinks that it’s paramount for one to have a dance guru who can hone their dance talent.

Pratima feels that in today’s time, opportunities and platforms are manifold for someone to show their talent as a dancer as opposed to earlier times when opportunities for dancers were scant. Therefore, she advises aspiring dancers to take to dancing as it has a really good scope in future.

Her dance guru Dr. Sujata has been Pratima’s biggest ideal and role model.

To parents, Pratima advises them to understand their children and to speak to them to make them share their problems as doing so can save them from sliding into depression.