More than a pretty face

Renu Kansal, 33, knows about beauty.

Kansal is the owner of Bollywood West, a dance studio in Boulder that offers Indian dance classes. It’s the first such studio in the state, and its growing popularity reflects America’s growing interest in Indian popular culture.
As an extension of the studio, this month Kansal, 33, along with dancer, Heather Booth, 35, opened a new aerial dance school. They call the Cirque-style school Miraas Aerial Dance, named after the Urdu word for “inheritance.” The Mirasi of India are nomadic performing artists who pass down their art from generation to generation.

As the saying goes, “A Mirasi will die of hunger before they sell their art to entertain people who cannot understand and appreciate it.”

For Kansal, aerial dance epitomizes beauty.

“It moves me to tears, it is so beautiful,” she says. “Anything that is true — pure to itself — is beautiful. Everybody finds babies so beautiful. That’s because they haven’t been clouded or made cynical; they are so pure in their joy. Same with animals: their purity and trueness.”

Dance is a way of expressing that individual, deepest truth, she says.

You don’t have to be strong or a gymnast to learn aerial dance, Kansal says. In fact, she began after having her daughter.

“It’s great for addressing your fears, especially for women, and really appreciating your body — still having the ability at this age to impress yourself,” Kansal says. “It’s beautiful and feminine, yet strong within that gracefulness. A quiet power.”

The goal is to make that strength appear effortless — a metaphor for the life of a busy modern woman, she says.

At the heart of everything Kansal does is her 2-year-old daughter, who regularly visits the studio and has been known to yell, “Mama, fall!” (Possible translation: “Mama, come down.”)

“What kind of role model do you want to be?” Kansal says. “Strong, powerful, graceful? All of these are things that we need for aerial, as well as to be businesswomen. We want to show that to our daughters.”

For more information, check out www.bollywoodwest.com and www.miraasaerial.com.

— By Aimee Heckel

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