Before dance, Hrishikesh Pawar tried theatre and worked backstage. “It was the energy of performing arts that drove me to it. Soon, I found Kathak and contemporary dance to be my connect with stage. So I learnt it. It helps me live and experience life to the fullest.”

He admits that “performing and teaching can get a little boring at times. There comes a time when every artist wants to be challenged. I had read about the Mark Morris Dance Group with their module of Dance for Parkinson’s disease and I thought it would be interesting to start and develop this programme in Pune. Parkinson’s is a cognitive movement disorder and if you study its symptoms you’ll know that contemporary dance can positively help to control the disease.” Starting this also meant that it would test Hrishikesh’s understanding of the dance form and help him reach a different set of students. Soon, he developed a module keeping Indian society in mind and further improvised the movements to suit individual cases. Since this is a form of alternative therapy, he also got a medical body on board for consultation. He travels across Europe for various dance and culture festivals including the acclaimed Dokumente Festival, Kassel, Germany.

Hrishikesh is passionate about life and celebrates everything including the good and bad times through dance. A day in his life is a mad circus that includes teaching, lectures and dancing until midnight”. So for someone to whom dancing means work, Hrishikesh “reads, travels and shops to relax”.

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