Her Story
About Nilanjana
I started my journey with Indian dance when I was very young in India. After moving through several countries and taking time for motherhood, I lost touch with what was my inner soul and what gave me happiness until I moved to New Jersey in 2003. It started as a hobby, but from there it took a different turn and became my life force. Starting in my 30s was not easy, especially jumping into a professional dancer career path where I was on stage 3 months a year while managing two very small children, a household, and intense training. Those 15 years in New Jersey, life continued like that until I made my mark in the Indian community. In 2015, I moved to San Diego, which started a different chapter where I'm pretty much on my own establishing my studio. My art form is 2,000 years old but something which is not popular amongst the Indian community, with only a very small minority who are even aware of it or want to learn it. With the dynamics having changed and people going more for showy, easy-to-learn stuff, it's been a big uphill battle trying to bring this art to people, get students, and put up shows. I have survived dancing and done over 200 professional shows. This is my fourth full-scale production that I'm putting up, and I not only direct it, I'm not only the teacher and a performer, but I'm also the producer of these big-scale productions. I'm very proud to bring them free of cost to the community because I want more and more people to be exposed to the kind of work I'm doing without any institutional support or community backing. I try to bring in Western audiences, bhakti audiences, museum curators, and people like that so they can see how I am creating an immersive visual experience that bridges something 2,000 years old with contemporary presentation through my movement, music, costumes, staging, and collaborations, making the aesthetics and stories of this ancient tradition accessible to a cross-cultural audience.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nilanjana
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to leadership. If I didn't have leadership, I wouldn't be where I am today. Anybody in the creative field, whether they're creating a movie or a music album, has to take the reins of control. I can't just survive wearing one hat of just being a performer. I'm having to wear multiple hats, do my marketing, do my PR, and have a vision. That is what leadership is. Maybe I can't change a lot of lives in one go, but I have a vision. My vision is to keep something old alive, like the geishas and Maikos who do their dance in Japan, which is almost a dying tradition there with only 50 people carrying it today. But the Japanese government is so supportive of keeping that art alive. Here, everything is Instagram, nobody can sit through beyond a minute, everything has to be showy, and nobody wants to go inward spiritually because that requires a lot of work. So my leadership and vision to preserve this 2,000-year-old tradition is what drives my success.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in my field right now is that my art form is 2,000 years old but not popular amongst the Indian community, with only a very small minority who are even aware of it or want to learn it. The dynamics have changed, and people are going more for showy, easy-to-learn kind of stuff. It's been a big uphill battle trying to bring this art to people, get students, and put up shows without any kind of institutional support or community backing. Everything is Instagram now, nobody can sit through beyond a minute, everything has to be showy, and nobody wants to go inward spiritually because that requires a lot of work. It's like the geishas and Maikos in Japan, where their dance tradition is almost dying with only 50 people carrying it today. The opportunity is that I know soon the dynamics will change and there will be more people willing to jump in and help. I'm working to bring in Western audiences, bhakti audiences, and museum curators so they can see how I'm creating immersive visual experiences that bridge something 2,000 years old with contemporary presentation, making this ancient tradition accessible to cross-cultural audiences.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · California
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.