Senior Spotlight 10

by Sonia Ivancic

Saaisha began her Bharatanatyam lessons very early, when she was just five years old. Although her parents initially wanted her to learn dance, Saaisha soon fell in love with the art form and was the one who wanted to continue. Initially, she felt overwhelmed by the precision and structure that comes with learning the technique of such an ancient dance style while having to remember all the details from step sequences to holding your arms straight.

Watching the older girls and their graceful movements, laughing with her friends, or the simple joy that comes with nailing an adavu were all the things that made the early learning process so rewarding. 

Saaisha faced the added challenge in that her family moved to North Carolina while she was a student at Shishya. While this initially coincided with the Pandemic, making it so she was not the only one taking online classes, once Shishya students started to come back in person, it was extra hard to stay motivated without the in-person engagement and harder to perfect posture and expressions. At the same time, she learned discipline and accountability from this experience, which was helpful when she began the Arangetram track with her sister.

Saaisha thinks that the intense preparation for her Aragetram was a turning point in her dance journey, giving her a whole new appreciation for the depth of Bharatnayam. The hardest dance for her was her Varnam: long, physically demanding, and emotionally intense. Her favorite was the Thillana, the culmination of her Arangetram. Taking the stage with her sister in July of 2022 made all the years of online classes worth it for this empowering debut moment. 

Following her Arangetram, Saaisha was part of Shishya’s Rome touring group, a surreal and breathtaking experience. Her favorite Shishya memory was performing Bharatanatyam on the Italy streets, introducing a crowd of strangers to a new art form. 

Saaisha will be attending UNC Chapel Hill to study business and health policy. She will most miss the Shishya community she has grown up with, the school becoming a second family that has taught her confidence through dance. Congrats Saaisha; we are so grateful that you have remained connected to our school even with the distance and look forward to all you’re going to do!