Pulling herself out of  depression following the death of her mother, Swayamprava took care of herself and strengthened herself. She currently runs her own architectural firm and has again picked up her dancing.

Swayamprava Mishra is an Odissi dancer and a professional architect. She is from Cuttack.

Swayamprava says her dance journey started when she was only two years old when her family admitted her to a dance school. But the dance school rejected her because she was just a toddler for them. However, Guru Ashish Das decided to teach her dance because he saw some spark in her. Swayamprava says she got an entry in the prestigious Limca Book of Records as the youngest Odissi dancer of India. She was just three years old and had by then performed the traditional Odissi repertoire from Jayadeva's 'Geet Govind'.

Swayamprava has learned under Guru Kumkum Mohanty too for more than twenty one years.

Swayamprava recalls the time when she was studying in seventh standard and was awarded  the national award for exceptional child achievement in Odissi dance, her mother met with an accident and she lost her. Because of this tragedy , she went into depression. She lost her touch in dance. But she anyhow continued her studies and completed her Architectural program and then did a Master’s degree in Town Planning.

After the COVID lockdown period passed, Swayamprava made a new beginning. She opened her new architectural office, lost weight and got back to dancing. She started taking dance classes again. She resumed herself as a professional dancer. She believes dance never left her and it was always in her.

Speaking about her hardships, Swayamprava says that every child goes through some kind of trauma in life at some point or the other. But how he or she will deal with that depends on their upbringing. When she lost her mother, she remembered the lessons and values ​​given by her mother during the depression. She had decided that she would give direction to her life only according to the values ​​of her mother.

Speaking about her mistakes , Swayamprabha says it was very difficult for her to live life without her mother. During her depressed days she made some wrong decisions. Now she thinks it was her mistake, she should have spoken her mind with somebody. Her second mistake, she thinks, was that she waited long for the things to be good and never pushed herself towards the opportunities.

When asked about her achievements, she says that she feels accomplished when her elders, her family, her gurus trust her because they see her trying. She considers it her second achievement that she has overcome her difficult phase and learned lessons from it.

When asked about her role models, Swayamprava says that she considers her sister-in-law and her childhood friend as her role models who helped her a lot to overcome depression. She also credits her former boss as her inspiration who inspired her to start her own firm.

In her free time, Swayamprava likes to spend time with her pets. She takes a break from work to relax herself.

Swayamprava’s life mantra is - “You have to start somewhere, then the universe helps you out to complete and achieve your target.”

Swayamprava advises people who are in difficult times saying you have to take care of yourself and schedule your time. Prioritize your life , show up and talk to somebody close and start moving towards your goals.