Priodarshini Auvi: A talented dancer

Her talent was a stepping stone to better things. She believes that being a dancer helped her get ahead.

Priodarshini, an enlisted dancer of Bangladesh Television, is a regular performer in the television shows of BTV. She has also performed in many stage shows organised by Jago Art Centre. Among the memorable occasions, she recalls the welcome dance for the Dutch Airlines crews in Bangladesh and other performances in the National Museum.

Like other dancers, Auvi has a dream: to get higher training from India, especially from Guruji CV Chandrashekhar who is her idol. She also idolises Belayet Hossain Khan, Rowshan Jamil and Birju Maharaj. Her dream is to have specialisation in all the elements of Bharatnatyam like Pushpanjali, Tilana and Jotishram. She is gradually moving towards this goal. She also has a special interest in developing expertise in the two sub-categories like Basanti and Saberi of Jotishram.

Auvi thinks that proper patronage of dance is yet to take off in the country. In her words, 'There are very few dance programmes on television, and very low priority is given to dance. Children need to be inspired to promote dance.'

According to Auvi, 'The newcomers are losing interest in dance because of a lack of promotion. Switching from dance they are mostly getting interested in modeling, which is quite distressing.' She says that dance is an ideal form of entertainment because, as she says, 'Dance has a universal appeal. One can easily understand the mudras of dance even if one does not understand the specific language.'