<p>A journey that commences with the blessings of a guru will bloom and flourish. Parikrama, launched in 2008, on the occasion of Sucheta Bhide Chapekar&rsquo;s 60th birthday, completed ten years on her 70th birthday.</p>

- Padmini Ganesh

It was celebrated as a four-day festival in Pune, organised by her daughter Arundhati Patwardhan and the Kalavardhini Parikrama offers valuable insights into dance institute which is now 30 years old.

Parikrama 2018 began on Sucheta’s birthday on 6 December, with her traditional Bharatanatyam presentation. This was followed by felicitations by eminent personalities like Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Sunil Kothari, C.V. Chandrasekhar, Darshana Jhaveri, Bhushan Gokhale and Madhur Bajaj. Kalavardhini students honoured their guru with a traditional arati of 70 diyas (oil lamps) and took her blessings. A CD of Vyomagami—a film by Amrita Mahadik on Sucheta Chapekar’s dance journey—and an English translation of her book titled Nrityatmika were released. There was also a screening of excerpts from the last 10 years of the Parikrama festival. The evening concluded with a crisp and brilliant presentation of Nrityaganga by my guru Sucheta accompanied by her able team of musicians.

The second evening of Parikrama witnessed various styles of classical dance. The evening began with a crisp group presentation of a few pieces from Nrityaganga by senior students of guru Sucheta, followed by dance performances by stalwarts like Darshana Jhaveri, C.V. Chandrasekhar, Sunayana Hazarilal, and Kanak Rele. This was ably strung together and presented by dance writer Ashish Mohan Khokar, who referred to it as “a prasad to students and rasikas alike”. It offered insights into the decades of hard work, passion, dedication and divin