'I am grateful for every moment'

Ace dancer

Sonal Mansingh confesses that as a student, she was a very shy and coy girl who would breakdown at the slightest of mistakes. She had a very patient but candid teacher though.

The teacher once compared Sonal’s dancing to that of a monkey and asked her to identify the difference between the two. “That statement from my guru changed my life forever and got me thinking. It made me a stronger individual,” Sonal tells Metrolife when she came to the City for a performance recently. 

Sonal is known world over for her energetic performances as for her engaging talks, lectures and writings. She sees something positive in just about everything around her, so if you ever ask if she’s happy with the way young people treat classical dance and music, she says, “I don’t think it’s fair to make a value judgement on the young but I am grateful that there are a group of young dancers who are still committed to tradition.”    

Sonal finds creativity in the smallest of things and draws inspiration from them, which she translates into a performance. She thinks creativity and performers are
inseparable.

That’s precisely why even after 53 odd years on stage, Sonal still feels like she has just begun. “When there’s a passion for something, it just spills over. There are ups and downs in life but I am grateful for every moment,” she shares.

Sonal’s efforts have yielded new dimensions to the set repertories – the latest being the Natya-Katha. This is the ancient form of storytelling which Sonal has embellished with her own singing, narrative skills combined with abhinaya – that is the art of expressive communication through hand gestures, postures and a face that reflects myriad emotions. Only Sonal has attempted something like this till date.

“You stagnate the moment you stop taking up challenges,” she avers.
  
Sonal has a group of close-knit friends in the City and she not only comes here to perform but also to chill out. But she too, just like a lot of other people do,
believes that Bangalore’s roads are unmotorable. “You definitely can’t take a pregnant woman on Bangalore’s roads,” she smiles.