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10-Jun-2020 12:00 AM 2123

Prachi started training in Odissi at the age of three, under the well acclaimed Odissi dancer, Guru Smt. Arpita Venkatesh at Kolkata. After shifting to Delhi, in 2004, she began training under Guru Shri Hare Krishna Behera and remained under his tutelage for nine years. Due to Guruji’s ill-health and subsequent demise, she is now pursuing her training under Guru Smt. Y Asha Kumari. She has also received guidance from Padmashri awardee Gurus Kumkum Mohanty, Aruna Mohanty and Guru Kavita Dwivedi.

She has completed twenty years of training in the form, and has been performing as a professional artist for the past eleven years. She has performed in many festivals of national and international repute, both in India and abroad. She has also been honoured with awards and titles such as the National Scholarship from the Centre for Cultural Research and Training, Government of India, Padmavati Yuva Pratibha Puraskar, Nritya Vilasini, Natya Bhramari, Subhadra Samman, Devadasi Ananyaa Nartaki Puraskar, Natyakala Chathura and Nritya Vidushi.

She is also trained in the Sitar and Hindustani vocal music, and is a young and upcoming filmmaker who has previously received training from the London Film Academy, United Kingdom and Prague Film School, Czech Republic. She is now pursuing her Master’s in Filmmaking at the London Film School. Aseem, a short documentary written, directed and edited by Prachi, on the life of Adiguru Shri Pankaj Charan Das, who laid the foundation for Odissi as we see it today, was screened at the 25th Guru Pankaj Utsav, on the occasion of Adiguruji’s 100th birth anniversary celebrations. It received wide appreciation from the fraternity as a whole for its content and presentation.

She has been associated with ‘Project Anjuman’, as part of which, a set of young and motivated artists conduct workshops in government schools across Delhi to help develop in students the 21st century skills of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. She also organises seminars about dance titled Samanubhāsanā - Conversations On Indian Dance to create a space for discussing issues that affect Indian dance today