17-year-old performs Bharatanatyam ‘arangetram’ in city

Ludhiana: Nitya Mahajan (17), an ex-student of Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar, performed her Bharatanatyam ‘arangetram’ on Sunday evening at her school auditorium. The one-and-a-half-hour performance stunned the audience, as she performed Kautuvam, Ananda Nartana Ganapathi, Aigiri Nandini, Bho Shambo, and Achyutam Keshavam, followed by Tillana with all Chennai-based artists.
She took inspiration from her own name, meaning incarnation of Goddess Durga (representing ‘shakti’ or power). She intends to start a Bharatanatyam club in The University of British Columbia, where she will pursue her Honours course in Psychology. She said: “I have received a scholarship from the universities of Toronto and British Columbia for Psychology Honours. There is no Bharatanatyam club there, but I will open a club there, and reach out to other students through my dance.”
Nitya started showing her prodigious talent when she was just two years old, and won her first award for a stage performance at the tender age of three. Thereafter, she was learning Bharatanatyam under the guidance of her guru Pinki Chaudhary for the past eight years. Presently, she is pursuing Visharad I (BA) degree in Bharatanatyam from Pracheen Kala Kendra. Her mother Nupur is a graphic designer and father Nalin a businessman. She has a brother Naman in Class V, and a sister in Class X.
Channelising her passion for dance, Nitya also took up teaching of dance to mentally challenged children at Nirdosh School. She bagged the first position three times in a district dance competition organized by Satyug Darshan, and achieved the first position at a national dance competition in Himachal Pradesh. She has also added a string of achievements to her credit, including the All India Best Cadet Award (NCC), received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.
She has also excelled in academics throughout her school days. She was her school topper and attained the second position in the district in Class XII CBSE examination, scoring 98% in Humanities. This year, she bagged the Best Student of The Year Award.