Pune's Tejaswini Sathe to choreograph a special dance performance at RD parade this year

At the age of 15,

Tejaswini Sathe

got the first opportunity to witness the Republic Day (RD) parade at

Rajpath

, Delhi. As a young NCC cadet representing Maharashtra and receiving a gold medal for rifle shooting, little did she know that after 28 years she would be back at the RD parade. But this time, the story is different.

Tejaswini, an experienced

Kathak

dancer who runs a Kathak academy in Pune, is one of the four artistes choreographing a 12-minute classical dance performance at the

Republic Day parade

this year. Currently in Delhi, Tejaswini is preparing for the performance and says this opportunity is special to her because it is the first time something like this will be performed at Rajpath.

To commemorate the 75th year of independence- Azadi ka

Amrit Mahotsav

, a special dance performance including various dance forms like classical dance, tribal dance and contemporary, will be presented by dancers from all across the country. "The 12-minute dance performance is based on the theme of 'Unity in Diversity’. The dance performance will depict the diversity of our country and different dance performances will be used to execute that," expresses Tejaswini, who along with three other dancers will be choreographing the dance.

The Grammy award winner, Ricky Kej and famous percussionist Bickram Ghosh have composed the music for the classical dance performance. Talking about the selection process, Tejaswini says that it all started from an advertisement in the newspaper. "Following the instructions given in the advertisement, I, along with the team, made a dance video of three minutes and sent it across. Based on the dance videos sent, a total of 480 dance groups got selected. My group was in the top five. The top five groups were invited to perform in front of

Amita Sarabhai

, who is in-charge of the cultural wing for the Republic Day parade. Impressed by our team, I was selected," says Tejaswini.

Tejaswini and her team are strictly following all COVID-19 protocols while in the capital. She shares, "We make sure during the practice session that everyone goes through the temperature check and sanitisation process. All of us are responsibly dealing with this. I want everyone to remember this dance performance forever. Hence, we are making sure that everything is done right, I hope that nothing goes wrong," concludes Tejaswini.