Vadodara: Just a month ago, she was battling Covid-19 and had to be put on oxygen during treatment at a private hospital in the city. Sixty-nine-year-old Dr Parul Shah, a prominent Bharatanatyam danseuse, didn’t just recover within a week but has also begun training her students online!
A cancer survivor, Shah says that the artist in her helped her beat the virus. “I was on the hospital bed for a week. On four days, I was kept on oxygen,” Shah told TOI. “Though I was feeling weak, the artist in me was dancing every day and it was Bharatanatyam that kept me alive. Having performed my entire life, my body and spirit were strong enough to fend off the virus.”
Former dean and head professor at the department of dance at MS University’s faculty of performing arts, Shah was detected with Covid in the third week of March.
“After getting quarantined for three days at home, I got admitted to the hospital to avoid any complication as I am a cancer survivor,” Shah said. “It was a difficult week but I managed to recover.” Shah had breast cancer a few years ago.
By the end of March, Shah was back home and spent about 10 days in isolation. “I took rest but how could I stay away from Bharatanatyam?” Shah said. “So, I began training my students online about a week ago. Though I still have weakness, the dance is helping me recuperate fast.”
She was appointed professor in dance in 1993 and went on to become the head of the department as well as the dean.
In 2014, she was nominated by the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) as the principal investigator for e-content development in performing arts. Since 2013, she has been working on a major research project of the UGC — The Changing Dynamics of Classical Dance of India with respect to Bharatanatyam.