Children learn Kathak from Raghav Sah at Tara Institute of Learning in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, June 14: The limited space at Tara Institute of Learning at Kankerbagh failed to complement the brimming enthusiasm of young dancers at the centre, but no one was complaining.

The room looked really small for such a huge crowd — around 40 children in the age group of 7 to 11, besides learners from 12 to 16 and 16 to 20 age groups — which had crammed it to get a glance of Raghav Sah, a disciple of the great Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj, who is here to attend a five-day workshop.

The fact that the centre was packed with eager learners was a testimony to the increasing popularity of this traditional dance form, belonging to north India, among young dance enthusiasts.

The director of the institute also agreed that children, as well as teenagers, are ecstatic to learn Kathak from Raghav Sah. “All the students of our institute are very excited to learn Kathak from guruji (Raghav Sah)’s at the workshop. Not only our 50 students but also students from some other institutes have joined the five-day workshop which started on June 13. I am still getting requests over phone from students who want to join the workshop,” said Kiran Kumari, director, Tara Institute of Learning.

Sah, who belongs to Gopalganj district, said he occasionally comes to the state for performances and such workshops. “I come here only when I get invitations from good people over here,” Sah added.

The dance enthusiasts kept practicing for hours and perfected the mudras, footwork and facial expressions after picking up the details from the mentor. Sah, too, looked devoted to train the students and help them identify their strong points and weaknesses.

“You need to be disciplined while learning the classical dance form (Kathak), which is all about expressions, footwork and timing. It demands attention from students when they are in the class, learning under the wings of their mentor,” Sah said.

“Just like students search for good teachers for better learning, as a guru, we too search for devoted students to whom we can teach our specific styles,” said Sah.

However Shah feels maturity in Kathak comes after years and years of practice. “In the last two years, I have been able to understand this dance form after practicing it for so many years,” said Sah, who started learning Kathak at 13 and has performed on stage in different countries, including Hungary, Poland, The Netherlands, Spain, Canada and others.