Bharatanatyam Arangetram by Avantika Shankar

Avantika Shankar, the sister of Indian athlete and Silver Medalist in the Men’s Decathlon in the Asian Games 2023, Tejaswin Shankar, will perform Bharatanatyam Arangetram on October 14 at Chinmaya Mission Auditorium.

Arangetram is an important occasion in the career of any Bharatanatyam dancer. After several years – decades even – of arduous training, when the Guru is confident that the disciple can sustain a solo performance, the disciple’s Arangetram is announced

The Arangetram thus is an honour to the Guru, a momentous rite of passage; it marks the first milestone in the disciple’s journey into the Ocean of Bharatanatyam.

Avantika is a dedicated, sincere and a firm believer in the guru shishya parampara She has been a student of Bharatanatyam under Guru Geeta Chandran’s tutelage at NATYA VRIKSHA since 2014

Currently a BBALLB student, fourth year, at North Cap University, Gurugram, she is inclined towards criminal law.

She also has been passionate about music since childhood and has been learning music for the past nine years. She continues to learn shlokas, abhangs and folksongs

She was part of her school athletics team at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and has won several medals at the zonal level

Giving back to society is her passion and priority. She has donated her hair for a cause, donating blood has been an annual ritual for her now. She is part of her college legal aid clinic, which helps in spreading legal awareness to people in need. Every weekend, she volunteers to teach children from less privileged backgrounds.

Geeta Chandran is celebrated not only for her deep and composite understanding of the art of Bharatanatyam, but equally for her Carnatic music (she is a trained and accomplished vocalist), her work in television, video and film, theatre, choreography, dance education, dance activism, dance-issue journalism and for her social media presence. And yet she seems to catalyse all these multiple vectors of creativity so effortlessly that they all seem to flow from the very core of her being.

When: 6pm; October 14

Where: Chinmaya Mission Auditorium; 89, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003