In­nis Fran­cis

An­janaa Dan, a re­cent in­ductee in­to the re­li­gious dance of Oris­sa, In­dia, re­cent­ly show­cased her tal­ents at the Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do, un­der the guid­ance of her tu­tor, Gu­ru San­dra Sookdeo.

Dan’s moth­er, Sari­ta, ex­plained that an Odis­si dance grad­u­a­tion, known as Manch Pravesh, is done on­ly if the dance tu­tor thinks the stu­dent is suit­ably qual­i­fied to be­come a so­lo artiste.

Dan, 15, a Form Four stu­dent of Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School, has been danc­ing since she was four years old and has been a youth vol­un­teer and am­bas­sador at the Brah­ma Vidya Peetham In­ter­na­tion­al Or­gan­i­sa­tion since 2015.

Out of a class of 25 stu­dents who train at the Kala Mandir, Dan is the third to grad­u­ate, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Vana Kan­gal and Shar­da Ram­sun­dar.