Me and My Story
I am Sharmila Rao, a Bharata Natyam dancer and teacher. I have been dancing in Switzerland for 40 years and have over 25 years of teaching experience. With this competence and with a lot of passion for art and teaching, I run my dance school and my various dance projects.
Since 2016 I have been running my dance school with locations in Zurich and Wettingen. Growing up in two cultures has given me a deep understanding of how to communicate art and culture simply and clearly. I have developed methods to teach dance to everyone, regardless of background or age. It is important to me to bring tradition and modernity together so that we can live, appreciate, and preserve our old traditions in a modern way. I feel particularly connected to those people who seek their identity by bringing the Western and Indian worlds together.
I was born and raised in Switzerland and grew up in a family of artists. My mother is also a Bharata Natyam artist and is one of the pioneers of this art in Switzerland. I worked and taught in her dance school until I was 35 years old before I founded my school. That’s why I learned classical Indian dance from scratch, was taught traditionally, and made my stage debut (Arangetram) at 12. After that, I toured Europe for 20 years in various productions and had a few appearances in India. My greatest successes at the time included the “Natya Mayuri” young talent promotion award from the Music Academy Chennai (1998) and the two-part tour “Abhijnana Shakuntalam” (1994/95), which we performed over 40 times throughout Europe.
As a young adult, in addition to my dance career, I studied Indology (Sanskrit, Pali & Hindi) and educational science at the University of Zurich. In my subsequent dissertation, I demonstrated the transfer of poetry into dance using the example of Bharata Natyam. I was able to complete this doctoral thesis with summa cum laude. In addition to this academic training, I studied South Indian classical (Carnatic) music for 20 years and Western classical music for 10 years. In 2021 I also completed training in physical education to strengthen my skills in anatomy and body-friendly dance lessons.
I look forward to carrying Indian dance into the future through my work, enriching it with fresh ideas, and bringing it closer to people from all cultures.
My Vision
I have a very specific vision of what I want to achieve with this art:
- The future of the Bharata Natyam lies in promoting its sustainability. The tradition has to be developed with the help of modern knowledge. The way dance is taught must be purposeful and intelligent. This requires constant further training and exchange with other dance genres.
- Bharata Natyam can be used specifically for physical and mental health if one follows the intelligence of the anatomical structure. Dance needs to be healthy and the dance students need to stay healthy.
- Bharata Natyam can only survive here in Europe if artists of all genres connect, support each other and establish a network of Indian dancers.
