‘She was like our mother’: Tributes paid to dance teacher
Ketaki Hazra taught Kathak to hundreds for 40 years despite being in a wheelchair
An Indian dance teacher, who taught the classical danceform Kathak to hundreds over 40 years despite being confined to a wheelchair, passed away in Dubai on Wednesday. She was 76.
Ketaki Hazra, a household name in Karama and Bur Dubai, started imparting dance lessons in 1983-84 as a non-commercial venture. Hailing from West Bengal, she came to Dubai as a young bride with her husband and utilised her training in the Jaipur Gharana of Kathak.
An accident in 1996 in which she injured her spinal cord took away her ability to dance. An osteoarthritic patient, Hazra had a second fall in 2014, but continued to teach.
Using hand gestures and foot taps, she taught the nuances of Kathak dance steps to students - from young girls to professionals and homemakers in their 40s and 50s and some male students as well.
From her chair, she presided over rehearsals that would continue all days of the week. She would direct the makeup artists, plan costumes, approving each aspect.
Samriddhi Bhatia, 19, a university student, said: “Our guru’s dance class has been my second home. I started learning Kathak from her at the age of eight. She had an incomparable wealth of knowledge.”
‘She shaped our lives’
Namrata Kotwani, a visual merchandiser, who started learning dance at three years of age in 1998, said: “She shaped the lives of many young girls such as myself, not just by teaching Kathak, but also by giving life lessons.”
Farah Shams, a chemical engineer and MBA, dancing since 1994, when she was three, said the dance that she learned from Hazra had “added extra stability in my life”.
Neena Kataky, a former
educator based in Dubai, who has had a decades-long association with Hazra said: “Even when she couldn’t move her body, her hands, her eyes, her facial expressions emanated the pure joy and beauty of dance, music and poetry.”
Akshita Maiti, 19, said: “I was her student since the age of four. I will fondly remember her liveliness, passion, and drive towards dance.”
Shalini Seth, 51, said: “I was drawn to her because she carried a whole world of Indian culture within her. She was my guru and a dear friend.”
Priyanka Dutta, 42, said: “When aunty started her dance class in 1983, I was among the first to join. She had an incredible passion and an enormous vocabulary of dance.”