A Parent Blog

by Jaya Balasubramaniam

14 years ago, my then four year-old attended a neighbor’s Bharatnatyam dance recital and begged me for classes. We had just moved to Princeton from New York City. I knew no one, and as an investment banking associate with a newborn 2nd child, I had little time to research classes and teachers. I wished she would forget. 

Weeks went by but the begging continued. Then months went by, and the begging didn’t stop. Having grown up in a family of classical music and dance connoisseurs, enrolling my child in dance classes should have come more naturally to me, but life had gotten in the way, I suppose. In the midst of a sleepless late summer night, my inner voice (juggling a baby bottle and an M&A model) told me to do something about the incessant requests. I walked over to my neighbor and inquired about her daughter’s teacher, but that teacher had recently had twins and was taking a break from teaching. That timing proved to be fortuitous, and was the start of a special relationship, one that changed the course of my girls’ lives. A random search led me to The Shishya School, and one phone call in, I knew this was the answer to my little girl’s requests.

Between my two daughters, my family has now enrolled in a whopping 13 + 11 =24 years’ worth of Shishya group classes (many of those years overlapping of course), both their Arangetrams, private classes, global field trips, many workshops, dance dramas, prop constructions, and countless dance events and memories. We have witnessed the school and its Shishyas blossom and grow into a pillar of the NJ dance community, and evolve onto national and international stages. But more important than all of that combined, Shishya has given us a precious and nurturing community centered on loving service, friendships, and student-centric learning. Staying student-first, as the name of the school itself suggests, is a defining value, that guides all of its choices. This sometimes comes with trade-offs for what others may want, but with each encouraging araimandi and studio hour it has built generations of confident students with strong self-worth and the comfort of having an understanding community to return to. For a small school to have done this  over the span of 20 years is a remarkable achievement.

As my oldest graduates high school and steps into the larger world, my husband and I have reflected on all that has nurtured her over the years. Shishya has taken an art form and transcended it into something so much more: a central part of my daughter’s multi-cultural identity, and her “village”. And for that we, as parents, will be eternally grateful.