International Dance Day: A mental reset with dance

Bengaluru practitioners share how dance is emerging as a medium for therapy and renewal

Dance in Bengaluru has moved beyond performance, as a space for release, recovery and reconnection. Across studios and movement institutions, practitioners say movement and “embodied expression” are steadily entering conversations around emotional wellness and everyday stress. 

For Dr Vandana Supriya Kasaravalli, founder-director of Anandi Arts Foundation, the process begins with helping participants reconnect body, mind and emotion through movement rooted in ‘navarasa’, the classical framework of nine emotions. Through facial expression, gesture, voice work and guided movement, she helps individuals access feelings they have often held back for years.

“Many people suppress sadness, anger, fear or pain because they do not know where to place it,” she says. “When those emotions are expressed instead of stored inside, there is a sense of relief and lightness.”

Trained in counselling at Banjara Academy, Dr Vandana combines therapeutic listening with embodied practice, creating a space for confidence-building, stress management and inner healing.

Conducted as both regular student engagement and need-based special sessions, these classes address concerns ranging from addiction awareness and communication barriers to low confidence.

Training the educator

At Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, founder and artistic director Jayachandran Palazhy says dance can no longer be treated as a standalone performance discipline “when many of the students today are increasingly neurodiverse, emotionally strained and socially disconnected”. As part of its diploma in movement arts and pedagogy, students are introduced to the psychological and embodiment-based dimensions of movement so future instructors understand that teaching requires more than technical correction. 

“Dance and movement, particularly with music, open up new neural channels,” Palazhy notes, adding that this impacts concentration, bodily awareness and responsiveness. While neuroscience increasingly supports movement-based work in learning difficulties, Parkinson’s, dementia and emotional regulation, he says the field still treats “such interventions too casually instead of as a committed discipline”.

Beyond performance

At Tarantismo Creative Dance Company, co-partner Anusha Hegde says customised corporate workshops focus on breath, muscle activation and conscious movement. “People think dance always has to lead to a showcase, but it does not. Sometimes it is simply about exploring how your body moves,” she says.

Sessions begin with breath work, meditation, yoga stretches and mudras before moving into guided movement drawn from belly dance, semi-classical, Bollywood or Latin styles. Most requests still come from the corporate sector, where workshops or short wellness programmes are often preferred.

Class as sanctuary

For Sharat R Prabhath, director of Prabhat Arts International, the therapeutic aspect of dance is not found in separate modules.

“We do not run therapy classes as such, but every session becomes a motivational session,” he says.

Despite serious spinal injuries and medical advice to slow down, Prabhath says dancing consistently leaves him feeling physically better and mentally more alert. “Movement is medicine,” he says.

He sees the same among adult students who come to class amid caregiving stress, illness at home, financial pressure or difficult marriages. “With salutation, grounding, music and repetition, Bharatanatyam and Kathak create a psychological shift from daily clutter into focused inwardness,” he says. The result, he adds, is an emotional reset.