2022
Asmi's
Rangmanch
parvesh
August 27th, 2022
HER JOURNEY
Asmi didn’t set out to find dance, it has been her home since the beginning. Her dance journey from a young age allowed her to experience a broad spectrum of emotions from the joy of her first dance performance to the fear of her first exam. Dance became part of her and her passion for dance grows day by day.
​
Asmi started her journey at the age of 5, learning ballet and tap. Even though she enjoyed western dance, as she watched Indian movies at home, she felt the allure of Indian dance. She
thereafter joined Bollywood and Kathak classes. Asmi immediately felt connected to Kathak. The dance felt like the best of all worlds, it had the footwork of tap, the grace and storytelling nature of ballet, and the excitement of Bollywood. She would come home from rehearsals and even though she was exhausted her tired feet ached to dance again. With Kathak, Asmi found herself involuntarily living dance -
practicing dance moves while walking around the house, revising steps in her mind during long showers, and even tapping her fingers in various footwork patterns during class. Kathak, is one of the few times she felt like all her worries are at ease, and she can just get lost in the rhythm of it all.
​
Asmi began learning Kathak with Guru Jayantee Payne Ji, and completed her first year Kathak exam there. At the age of 8, she joined Guru Sheila Oak Ji’s kathak classes at Rhythmaya Dance. Under the tutelage of Sheila Ji, Asmi’s love of kathak began to flourish. Over the past decade with Sheila JI, Asmi has had the opportunity to learn from renowned Kathak gurus like Guru Svetlana Tulsai Ji, and even attended a multi week retreat with Guru Rajendra Gangani Ji. She has also had the opportunity to perform at many venues, such as the Cherry Blossom Festival, at an NBA halftime show, and in front of Saroj Khan.
​
During COVID, to expand her knowledge and foundations of the dance - Asmi began taking classes with Guru Pooja Bhatnagar Ji. The increased comfort in using online video platforms like Zoom, made a desire of Asmi’s to learn with Pooja Ji come true. It helped her solidify her love and sincerity for the art form.
​
This past year, Asmi has begun teaching the beginner and intermediate levels of Kathak at Rhythmaya dance.
​
​Asmi has a strong foundation in Kathak, trained in both the Lucknowi and Jaipur Gharana. She hopes to continue learning and teaching Kathak for as long as she possibly can.
Sheila Oak
Sheila, along with her partner Nirathi Rao, has developed Rhythmaya from a basic dance school to a full-fledged dance company by managing a franchise in Maryland and developing a unique Kathak classical dance curriculum for the diverse student base across the DC Metro area.
A Northern Virginia native, Sheila Oak Maggin is professionally trained in many forms of dance including Kathak (completing her Raangmunch Pravesh in 2002 under renowned Kathak Guru Asha Vattikuti), Bollywood, Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, Belly Dance, and Middle Eastern Tribal. She uses this diverse background to choreograph exceptional dances and to bring new and creative ideas/projects to the team. Whenever Rhythmaya is in need of fresh, innovative, original content, Shelia is just the woman for the job!
Sheila works full time as a manager in Finance and Securitization. She lives with her husband, Daniel, and two adorable sons in Maryland. Outside of dancing, she has a passion for people, family relationships, and culinary cuisine. Sheila is constantly deemed as being the “life of the party” and having a “fun, infectious energy that people constantly want to be around”. Her culture and background are also very important to her as she fully embraces her Half Punjabi, Half Marathi identity along with her newly acquired “Hinjew” culture post marriage.
Pooja Bhatnagar
Pooja Bhatnagar is a leading exponent of Indian classical Dance, Kathak, in Indonesia. She has learned Kathak (Jaipur Gharana) for more than 12 years continuously with the most rigorous and highly intensive training under Guru Geetanjali Lal and Shri Rajendra Gangani in India. She has been a recipient of merit scholarship of the National Institute of Kathak, New Delhi throughout her training.
A highly consummate performer, an Art Historian, researcher, a trained yoga teacher (Yoga Shiromani) and dance teacher par excellence, Pooja Bhatnagar has achieved many milestones in her journey, as an exponent of Kathak dance. She has choreographed and performed many fusion dances with Javanese dancers and Legong dancers.
She has performed in several prestigious national and international dance festivals. Her performances are marked for her technical virtuosity and brilliant execution.
​
Aside from her dance practice, Pooja is also a certified yoga teacher in which she reflects the ancient wisdom of India through combinations of yogic postures, mudras and sacred symbolic dance gestures enhancing chakra awareness. She believes that Yoga, movement and dance is the source of life, an expression of life & simply a way of life; an ancient philosophy of life in graceful motion.
​
​
HER GURUS
THE DANCE
Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit word Kathak which means "story", and Kathakar which means "the one who tells a story", or "to do with stories".
KATHAK
Kathak originated within Hindu temples as a storytelling device for portraying the epic tales from Hindu scriptures, Mahabharata and Ramayana.
However, the stories didn’t stay within the temple walls for long. Nomadic Kathakars, or wandering storytellers, soon began carrying the dances throughout India. They added emotions and facial expressions to their performances, further developing the dance to include elements of mime and theatricality. In this way, Kathak transitioned from its secluded, devotional origins to a more accessible, multi-disciplined entertainment tradition.
During the medieval period, Kathak became an established part of court culture, performed under the patronage of India’s Persian kings and Muslim moghuls. This sealed Kathak’s transition from colloquial entertainment to classical art form, that incorporates elements of both Hindu and Muslim cultures.
​
Kathak in its present day form, is unique when compared to other dance forms in that there has been constant evolution of this dance form based on the history of India (since 400 BCE). For example the footwork is comparable to the Flamenco style of dance from Spain. The chaakars (or multiple spins) are influenced by Sufiism - the Persian and Turkish dance forms. The crux of Kathak, however, was so dancers could depict the stories that originated from the stories in Hinduism.
RANGMANCH
The Rangmanch Pravesh is a solo concert that showcases a Kathak student's mastery of the form and her development into a skilled dancer. This auspicious occasion is a major milestone in the life of a dancer. It demands complete control and command over the intricacies and nuances of Kathak. It is a culmination of many years of discipline, perseverance and devotion where the dancer presents their art before a live audience.