Isha Sharvani: Like breath itself

If she can boggle you with her extremely pliable, gravity defying antics on stage, offstage, Isha Sharvani can leave you equally pleased you with a rather patient ear and well-thought out answers to your questions.

A performer with a calendar choc-a-bloc with scheduled performances around the country and the world — she was all set to take off to Muscat for an international film festival when we caught up with her — Isha is really looking forward to April for the M.A.D Festival. An open-air festival to be held in the beautiful environs of Ootacamund, the thought of performing there has her thrilled for a couple of reasons.

“I just finished co-choreographing Shiva Shakti, a dance production with my mother and I am really excited about bringing it to Ooty,” she exults. The other reason for this unbridled excitement is also the mere idea of, “three days and nights filled with music and dance.” “It will be a great way to enjoy and appreciate music plus other arts along with the other artistes and the audiences,” she says. And if she needed any further motivation to take part in the festival, she says, “I have been involved with performing arts since I was 2 and as an artiste, I want to help anyone who is promoting performance arts, be it dance, theatre or music.”

A self-confessed performer who loves “dancing on table tops or just about anywhere from when she was two,” she adds, “I’d even perform at a beach. All I want is to get people to experience art.”

Talking about choreography, Isha reveals how her mother and she work diligently, to come with a dance production, every year. The principle dancer of the Daksha Sheth company, Isha says, “The R & D that goes into making an elaborate production can be time consuming.” “It also takes time to develop a style,” she says citing their various productions. “The previous production, Postcards from God had elements of acting and the movements were casual but for BhuKam, the story demanded extreme contortions for which I had to go to Australia to train myself in flying!”

Having tasted the more demanding art of choreographing, Isha is looking forward to going solo, but not just yet. “I am just one show old,” she says.

A hard-working dancer herself, Isha feels that for anyone to make it big in dance, “requires a lot of dedication.” Something which she feels, youngsters today, “are not ready to do.”

“Older artistes dedicated their lives to the art form, not just two hours, three days a week,” she points out and rather sagely adds, “There is a difference at being good at something and being great at something and that comes from hard work and dedication.”

As the conversation winds down, there is that all-important question to ask; about all the work she puts in to stay so gravity-defying-ly pliable. “Nothing in life comes without hardwork. I work out six days a week. I have to work out to ensure that my body doesn’t stiffen. I also exercise even when I am travelling or even while I am shooting,” she says.

“Do you take a break from breathing? That’s what dance is to me. So, I will never take a break from working out.”