Mahika Sampat dons many hats. A humanities student in grade 12, is also the Cultural Secretary of her school, helming the responsibility of studies consummately with her passion in life, which is DANCING. 17-year-old, Mahika is a tangy blend of dancer, choreographer and a performer, who has got many plaudits under her belt, being a practitioner of the Odissi dance form which she has been studying from a very tender age of 4. And not only classical dance, she is fluent in many other Western dance forms too.
Mahika’s head and heart are perfectly aligned; she is a Humanities student whose chosen specialization is Psychology, while being a vocal promoter and proponent of “Dance Therapy” that seeks to address psychological and anxiety issues of teenagers through the mode of dancing.
Mahika has been teaching Odissi Dance at the Saksham Bal Vikas Sansthan (a school for underprivileged children) in Sushant Lok, Gurgaon, from the tender age of 14, with enthusiastic feedback from the kids, who see in her a compassionate teacher. At the ‘Kingdom of Dreams’ in Gurgaon, Mahika masterfully choreographed the dance performance of a select group of girls from this school which was witnessed by many and earned her a lot of appreciation and goodwill.
Mahika, even at the age of 17, has many feathers in her cap that lesser mortals would be hard pressed to emulate. A couple of years back, during 2018-19, she, along with her teacher and mentor, Shagun Butani, performed at the “West Zone Cultural Center” at Udaipur, to rousing applause. Her talented performances at the launch of the “FabIndia experience centers” at Noida and Lajpat Nagar (Delhi) thrust her firmly in the limelight as a prodigious dancing talent to watch out for.
She has performed for various events such as the Governor’s meet in Mumbai and at the 90th anniversary of India’s one of the oldest museum at the Allahabad Museum.
Mahika also had a brief brush with tinsel town when, only in the 10th grade, she received an offer to act in a Bollywood movie, on the strength of her dancing prowess. However, there were some scenes she was not comfortable with and she gracefully declined the Bollywood offer.
In 2019-20, Mahika assisted and performed with her Guru, Shagun Butani in a prestigious project named ‘Fluid Stones’ which was funded and promoted by the CSR wing of Interglobe. Just before the lockdown, in February-March 2020, Mahika showed off her skills with dancing performances in Mumbai, the Allahabad Museum, the National Museum (Delhi) and also the Sunder Nursery Heritage Site in New Delhi. Her performances clearly spelt out her love and dedication towards the Classical dance form and marked her out as a dancer to watch out for in the future as well.
Mahika is “Dancing Through Life” with an aim to become a renowned classical dance choreographer and helping and uplifting people with the principles of dance therapy.
Report: Joydeep Das Gupta || Dated: 21st December 2020 || Place: Kolkata, West Bengal
Such an inspiring story.. young generation carrying the cultural heritage forward is worth appreciating.
God bless her!
Loved the article.
Good to see Mahika consistently learning and performing from such a tender age.