From late starter to national school founder: How Dhvani Kothari is making ballet Indian
Mumbai: In a ballet class in Mumbai, little girls in leotards and tutus twirl, chatter and wobble at the barre. Then the music changes — feet turn out, backs straighten, and chaos falls into place.
Watching from the side is Dhvani Kothari, founder of the National Ballet School of India. Across 12 centres in Mumbai, Kothari now teaches more than 250 students, from three-year-olds to a 44-year-old mother of two, with a mission to make ballet accessible and challenge the idea that it belongs to only one body type.
Her own journey was unconventional. At 13, after trying jazz, contemporary and hip hop, a visiting Russian ballet instructor changed everything.”When I tried ballet it was an instant click. I knew I belonged to it. I can just be myself here,” she says.
After the instructor left India, Kothari had to find her own path — training in Croatia and Hungary. At 16, she was the oldest in a class of 10 and 12-year-olds.”It was awkward being the oldest in the class. But with time, I got comfortable,” she says.
At 19, she won the Bosphorus Ballet Festival in Turkey, competing against dancers from 75 countries.”That win made me believe that Indians can also perform ballet with a formal, structured training,” she says.
