Apeksha Bhattacharyya - Many Western Countries Don’t Even Know of Ballet Existing in India (Founder - IARB)

Founder, Owner and Director at Indian Academy of Russian Ballet - IARB

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

My name is Apeksha Bhattacharyya and I am the founder of Indian Academy of Russian Ballet.

Hailing from a north eastern family, a blend of Bengali & assamese, I was always encouraged to pursue my creative skills. I remember my first stage performance was at age 3 on a rabindra sangeet. Coming to Mumbai in 1997, at age 7, I, of course had wider choices & so my journey began. 

From folk dance classes to jazz & western, and eventually landed up in a ballet class with a Philipino teacher. It’s been 10 years continuing my passion for ballet and today I represent India as an ambassador for the Russian culture & arts in Italy. 

2. When did you first decide that you wanted to be a ballet dancer?

I remember my last year in college at Jai Hind, we won the dance competition at one of our BMM college festival & I was handed a scholarship to attend a dance academy that taught ballet.

I stepped in to my first ever ballet class, taught by a Phillipino ballet teacher. Wearing my first ever pair of leotard, stockings & ballet shoes. Completely out of place, I could not perform even one of the movements correctly. My flexibility was miserable. 

I could not stretch, could not do splits, could not take my leg up, nothing. For the first time in being a dancer, I felt I could not dance. But somehow it never crossed my mind to give up & go back to the easy dance forms that I already knew & did master. It took me about 2 years to finally say that I could perform the basic ballet steps, yes two years! Just to master the basics. 

And within this period I was diagnosed with PCOD, a hormonal disorder. For those who know about PCOD, you are just not allowed to gain weight. And here I was taking all the medications in for about 7 long years, but little did I know ballet was already healing me. You see ballet’s intensity keeps you on a body check. 

These many years of meds, resulted in to side effect, made my knees weaker, my ankles weak. It was potentially stopping my ballet. How could you stand on your toes, with weak ankles? And so I made a choice, ballet was to be my medicine. My answer to PCOD.

Then grew my dream, I have to educate our future generation about ballet. I needed them to know, what your body needs is simple - some dedication & commitment, not pills!


3. How long does it take to learn the choreography for a two-hour ballet?

Learning any of these ballet performances can be time consuming, not to forget the energy & efforts that go in to it. What we see on stage, a 2 hour long ballet musical, for example Sleeping beauty or Swan Lake, can take upto 6 months to rehearse. Even here at our academy, we begin learning our ballet stage performances upto 1 year prior.


4. While performing, do you always have the fear of any injury?

Yes absolutely, initially when just beginning with pointe shoes can be mentally & physically challenging. Sometimes it is our minds that stop us from taking certain steps in fear of falling down & hurting, bruising & bleeding. It is only once we accept them as our journey is when we begin to be fearless. 

And hence, to tell you the truth, at our ballet school we very importantly teach our students to be mentally strong & disciplined. How else can we continue dancing on our toes, knowing the scratches & bleeds, and to expect that of students as young as 12 years of age? I remember when I was practicing for my first ever ballet performance, I fractured one of my big toes two months prior to the show. I was just not ready to give up. And so I rested my entire practice phase and directly performed on stage when it was time.


5. What skills do you need to be a ballet dancer?

To be a ballet dancer requires physical & mental skill sets. With physical I mean correct training of body, developing flexibility & strength in your muscles, to use these skills to perform your ballet moves. Did you know, at some of the famous ballet schools they check your body type to approve admissions. 

Ballet is a very competitive world, and hence such schools require their students to have a particular lean body type, with long neck muscles, appropriate body weight, and so on.

Coming to the later part of the skill sets, we all know how daunting ballet training can be, the rigorous hours of training, the injuries, and most of all the commitment of 10 years of your education. And therefore, I say one must be mentally very strong & disciplined. In a way this is very helpful in younger kids to have an attentive manner & focused mind. I believe, you have to love ballet, to do ballet.


6. Your opinion on the popularity of Ballet dance in India as compared to other countries?

I remember our first ever international stage was at Hong Kong, we were here sitting in Mumbai filling up the registration form and when we came to the option of selecting our home country, India was not on the list! Next day we called up the organizers at Hong Kong, just to request them to put India on their list of countries so we could select and finish the form filling. 

This feeling of pride and integrity, to put India on the list with so many other countries, I will never forget. This might give you a sense of where India stands in the world ballet map. Forget the fact that yes ballet is not famous in India, it is not a part of our culture & upbringing. 

But many western countries don’t even know of ballet existing in India! My biggest feeling of pride came in when in 2019, I was invited to become the Indian ambassador in Italy for promoting and nurturing this Russian art form. I knew then, my country was being recognized, my students were being admired. 

And so we became the first ever academy to send our students to represent India to compete internationally, to go places. Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, Vienna, Russia, USA, Greece. Ballet is a culture, and to make this popular amongst our already present classical Indian dances, Bollywood dance , etc is a huge challenge. And yes it will definitely grow popular with a growing awareness. 

7. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring ballet dancers?

Being a ballerina is not so easy! Yes it requires hard work, commitment & sacrifices. But what is even tougher is to dream to be a ballet dancers. A land where not many know what ballet is, what a ballerina means & most of all how to be one. But thanks to today’s easy access to the internet, we can dream. 

And so if you wish to be one, grasp every moment with all your happiness. To go to a ballet studio, finding a ballet teacher, to put on your ballet shoes. . These are the moments you must be thankful for and remind yourself to continue with your dream.

- Interviewed by - Nishad Kinhikar