Bhakti Deshpande
KATHAK DANCER / ACTOR
Early years...
Having been born to artist parents, Bhakti's journey as a Kathak artist (without exaggeration) began in her mother's womb. Her parents and teachers Guru. Vidyahari Deshpande and Guru. Sunil Deshpande recognized the performer in her at an early age had laid the foundation for her to become a soloist since she was 9 years old. Destiny also brought the living legend Padmavibhushan Pandit Birju Maharajji, who Bhakti had always idealized since she was 4; to inspire her in the journey ahead. Since then she has had the fortune of having Maharajji guide her through. She absorbs his ideology of beauty & grace in bodily movement or vocabulary and has made it her strongest tool for self-expression. Fortune also showered upon her to receive guidance from Taalyogi Pandit Suresh Talwalkar ji when she was hardly 12 years old. His teachings made her gain command over Laya-taal in addition to her precision in movement, which is a rare combination seen among Kathak dancers. In all, a divine blend of grace, intellect and soulful experience makes Bhakti one of the most deserving Indian dancers to look out for in the newer generation.
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Apart from focussed training in Kathak dance, most of Bhakti's childhood was spent in the premises of auditoriums hanging around the backstage while her parents would be performing or rehearsing. Her doll-house years were often replaced by make-up vanities, light rooms, ever changing sets and scripting tables. She often dreamt her dreams there and learnt at an early age that "stage" was one place where one's fantasy land could actually come to life. With the handy experience of stage craft; venturing into acting and choreography was an obvious reaction to the early exposure of stage and camera arts.
In natural progression, she started her acting career with experimental marathi plays like 'Aniket Rashomon' & 'Raji cha Mor'. She won many awards as a lead actress for the same. However, she extended it gracefully to the medium of camera to reign as a queen of a million hearts on marathi television daily - Dilya Ghari Tu Sukhi Raha
With exposure to camera through her acting career, she went on to doing immense choreographic wo for films, television reality shows, and stage productions too.
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stage & camera arts
Collaborations
Bhakti is ever hungry for artistic challenges. Her creative craving always incites her to take up newer challenges and continuously push her boundaries by moving out of her comfort zone. Her experimental collaborations with performers from other dance forms like Bharatnatyam-Odissi-Kuchipudi, Indian folk, Contemporary-Jazz-Salsa have earned her remarkable praise from critics as well as connoisseurs.
One of Bhakti's most recent & popular collaborations has been Sakhi - her resonance. Sakhi is India's first classical all girl band, that's come to form to celebrate womanhood through their music. In the Indian scenario, the world of dance is otherwise stands divided from the world of vocal and instrumental, Sakhi is a classic example of how beautifully binding these fields be. Its tremendous popularity in India, Europe & USA speaks volumes of Sakhi's success.
Bhakti also indulges in co-creative endeavours that expands here area of work, while experimenting with artist from other discipline like photographers, painters, architects, graphic designers, sculptures & film makers.
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Outreach
While Bhakti continues to work towards making her dreams come true as a performer, at a personal level she feels equally responsible to return gratitude towards society. The best way for artists to do so, is the path of teaching young minds. Bhakti has a great flair for teaching that channelizes her need to reach out. She undertook a research project in education during her masters that came up with an integrated vision of drawing parallels between Multiple Intelligence theory of Howard Gardner and the traditional Guru-Shishya parampara. Having tested the methodology on 100 students, she has been able to translate her studies into practical life that results in new-age teaching practices. Her research has the potential to have a larger impact in the Indian classical performing arts’ community, that she is working towards. This distinction of vision makes her really stand out as a teacher in her generation and it is clearly displayed in the quality of her students.
Bhakti conducts following initiatives to effectively reach out to the younger generation:-
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Conducts Workshops / Modular training sessions for independent learner and corporate programs for beginner & intermediate levels
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Delivers lecture-demonstrations & seminars focused of Appreciation of Kathak dance
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Conducts teacher-training modules to help teachers to develop skills for better delivery of course content adapting with the change in learning patterns of students
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Conducts advanced & professional training / grooming modules for aspiring performing artists
Bhakti has been heading Abhijat Nritya Natya Sangeet Academy's branch in Mumbai since the last 8 years & has lead it to make it a successful endeavour by setting up 4 centres approachable to students across south Mumbai.