Why Yana Lewis chose India to realise her ballet dreams

It’s a lukewarm afternoon, and Shoonya connected Lalbagh Road successful Bengaluru is teeming with dancers prepping for an aggravated rehearsal session. They beryllium to the Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet, which is gearing up to signifier its caller production, ‘A Tale of Dreams and Destinies’. The dancers rapidly alteration into ballet tights and leotards. When they motorboat into movements what you spot are sculpted frames, graceful lines and gentle leaps.

Petite, yet commanding, the U.K.-born Yana Lewis orchestrates the 200‑odd dancers with a dependable that cuts done the chatter. “This is our seventh in‑house production, based connected a classical communicative from One Thousand and One Nights,” she says, starring america into the main creation hall. Yana calls retired a fewer last‑minute instructions; latecomers scamper into place, the euphony begins and the ballet unfolds.

Yana wants to unfastened the amusement with a larboard de bras acceptable to Vande Mataram arsenic a homage to the state that has been her location for the past 28 years.

A Tale of Dreams and Destinies is astir a thief who discovers a magical lamp and a princess yearning to spot the satellite beyond her palace walls. Their paths converge, and unneurotic they look obstacles that trial their resoluteness and leads them toward a shared destiny. “At its core, the communicative celebrates the powerfulness of dreams and the courageousness to marque them existent — whether you are a thief, a princess, a vizier, maharaja, djinn, oregon simply a passerby successful the wondrous metropolis of Khazaanagarh,” explains Yana.

Dancers glide done arabesques (one of ballet’s astir iconic positions) and jetés (a leap wherever the dancer throws 1 limb into the aerial and jumps from 1 ft to the other). Their larboard de bras remains fluid, yet precise. Ballet formations make sweeping patterns, portion solos soar successful a expansive allegro. Each leap and plié carries a communicative weight, tracing the character’s travel with elegance, leaving you awestruck that India tin signifier ballet of bonzer grace, arsenic much radical clasp this Western creation with conviction.

In India, wherever creation is often grounded, ballet arrives arsenic thing otherworldly. Its connection is 1 of elevation, wherever the signifier defies gravity. A occidental creation form, ballet is present becoming a span — a dialog betwixt cultures.

After an hour, Yana announces a interruption to speech astir wherefore she chose to prosecute this creation style, that excessively successful India. The challenges she faced successful mounting up her school, her grooming methodology and choreographic works.

Managing dancers successful India means “navigating the endless rhythm of exams,” Yana states. “Students juggle academics and art, often stepping distant from rehearsals. Yet determination are a fewer successful higher grades that negociate both, uncovering creation to sharpen their focus.” Passion, she insists, indispensable coexist with education. “Wake up astatine 3 a.m., study, past creation — it’s possible,” she says, embodying her ain doctrine of discipline, waking astatine 4 a.m. daily.

About her aboriginal days arsenic a teacher, Yana shares: “In India, young girls would ticker Barbie or the Nutcracker and travel to maine to larn ballet. Parents excessively would bring them without truly knowing the creation themselves, truthful we had unfastened classes to amended them. Today, children recognize our storytelling easily. I besides performed astatine NCPA, Mumbai, followed by a store for Indian classical dancers, showing them the similarities betwixt the 2 forms. The outer rotation of the legs, the usage of the foot, the lifting versus grounding and truthful on. If you bid some sets of muscles, they complement each other. Later, I taught ballet to Indian classical dancer Rukmini B. Jayakumar, who went connected to survey astatine Boston Conservatoire. She said ballet took her Bharatanatyam to different level. Ballet opens a full caller world. It changes the aesthetic but not the style, making jumps and lifts easier.”

Yana does not ”perform anymore. I’m 64. Now I thatch and person collaborated with Indian classical dancers too. I bask moving with gurus who enactment without prejudice. I find it enriching. There’s ever learning — you ne'er halt if you’re a existent artiste.”

Yana besides speaks candidly astir the fare of ballet dancers: “food indispensable beryllium substance for the body. Fruits, nuts and airy nutrient sustains energy, portion dense meals hinder performance. “You can’t creation connected atom and dal — it conscionable sits successful your tummy,” she says, encouraging healthier choices successful classes for rigorous rehearsals.

Yana started learning ballet astatine the property of two. “I told my parent I wanted to beryllium a butterfly. She interpreted that arsenic my tendency to alert and took maine to ballet people — and that’s wherever it each began,” says Yana, who is inspired by Sylvie Guillem “because she brought an avant‑garde benignant to ballet that was beyond that era, and divers movement‑based nuances to classical ballet,” reveals Yana, who believes a “career successful creation is possible. You person to beryllium adventurous and instrumentality that leap and spot wherever the travel takes you.” Her girl present trains abroad, having attended the Royal Ballet School and Australian Ballet Company programs. Yana shares that her students excessively person gone overseas — Boston Conservatoire, London schools, University of North Carolina. And now, she hopes to unfastened a full‑time vocational ballet schoolhouse successful India.

Her travel has besides crossed borders. Through collaborations with a Swiss creation company, wherever Yana “blended European precision with expressive style”. She has danced connected tv successful the UK and toured with companies earlier yoga brought her to India successful 1998. After surviving successful Mumbai, she settled successful Bengaluru to commencement a ballet school, “keeping my committedness to dancers I had met on the mode that I would instrumentality to teach”.

Yana launched the Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet successful 2006. Her main workplace is successful Ulsoor, with centres successful Koramangala, Kalyan Nagar, J.P. Nagar and Whitefield. “Younger graders bid astatine centres, portion higher graders bid astatine Ulsoor. I sojourn the centres, ensuring everyone gets my attention.”

According to Yana, it has been a fantastic journey, but a challenging one. “Carving retired a abstraction for yourself successful a state with a thriving classical arts country calls for committedness and perseverance. Initially, the schoolhouse did not pull galore students, but implicit the years it has grown to go 1 of India’s chiseled ballet companies. Despite the hesitancy astir the rigour of training, I bash not compromise connected ballet values. This attack has helped maine physique a well-trained acceptable of dancers, with whom I person gone connected to make choreographic works specified arsenic Alice, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and moderns pieces specified arsenic Oz and Alice.”

For her, A Tale of Dreams and Destinies is profoundly tied to the present. “The satellite feels uncertain, afloat of instability. Its scary. I deliberation this amusement is astir dreams and pursuing done with your content system. Passion is thing that can’t beryllium changed, not adjacent by AI. Someone asked maine if AI could bash my job, and I said perfectly not. It tin nutrient a show, but it won’t beryllium an imagined oregon originative piece.”

A Tale of Dreams and Destinies volition beryllium staged connected April 11 arsenic portion of the foundation’s outreach programme, with a complimentary amusement for children from NGOs crossed Bengaluru. On April 12, 2 shows — astatine 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. — volition beryllium unfastened to the public. Tickets are disposable connected BookMyShow. Venue: Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, Konanakunte Cross, Bengaluru.