ABOUT US

Established in 2008 and based in suburban Melbourne, Australia, Ghungroo School of Dance offers lessons in the North Indian classical dance stream of Kathak. Smt. Sumona Bhattacharya, the founder and creative head of this institute, believes that knowledge of Kathak should be imparted in a relaxed and fun environment, and can be learnt by students of all age groups and gender profiles. One of the main purposes of the school is to promote the art of classical style of Kathak, in its most authentic format. Major focus is on igniting a love for this classical style dance form in the minds of its students.

Ghungroo School teaches students of all ages and various skill levels, from kids to mature adults, from absolute beginners to students with over 17 years of Kathak training. Classes are based on small groups, focussed on the students’ level of Kathak knowledge. Another purpose of the school is to develop a trained pool of next generation of locally trained artists, who will become the future global ambassadors of this artform. As a step in this direction, students trained by the dance school have presented the very first Kathak Rangmanch Pravesh and the very first TEDx talk on Kathak in the ANZ region.

Smt Sumona Bhattacharya is passionate about dance, drama and art has been learning Kathak from 7 years of age. She has been a lifelong disciple of Padma Shri and SNA (Sangeet Natak Kala Academy) awardee Guru Rani Karnaa. This Guru – Shishya relationship continued until the passing of her Guru in 2018.

Sumona believes that every artist should be a student of art for life. Even after almost five decades of learning and association with Kathak, Sumona continues to receive coaching and mentoring from numerous Kathak stalwarts across the globe, and is part of a globally integrated Kathak community. These Kathak stalwarts include late Padmavibhushan Kumudini Lakhia, Padmashree Dr. Puru Dadheech and Vibha Dadheech and Vidushi Saswati Sen as well as Pt. Rajendra Gangani. Ghungroo School of Dance has successfully hosted many overseas artists in Australia giving opportunity for their students and the wider Kathak community to watch their live performances and learn from them through three day workshops. These included Kathak artists such as Vidushi Saswati Sen, Debashree Bhattacharya and Sohini Debnath (students of Guru Rani Karnaa) as well as senior tabla artists such as Pt. Abhijit Banerjee, Shri Ramdas Palsule and Mayookh Bhaumik. 

In 2019, Ghungroo School of Dance had planned to host the legendary Kathak Samrat Pandit Birju Maharajji, for performances and workshops in both Sydney and Melbourne. This was for the very first time that the maestro was due to perform in these cities of Australia. However just a month before the scheduled performances, Maharajji was severely ill, and had to cancel his trip.

Smt. Sumona Bhattacharya is also deeply interested in the theoretical aspects of Kathak dance, is an avid reader and collector of books and publications on Kathak and regularly liaises with theoretical Kathak experts from across the globe. Additionally, she routinely translates many of these valuable lectures from regional languages to English, to make them more accessible to her students.

TO ACCESS DETAILED BIO :

Smt Sumona Bhattacharya is the Creative Head of Ghungroo School of Dance and click the link to see her bio. => https://ghungroo.com.au/index.php/faculty