#FeaturedFriday: Kaleidoscope Dance Academy was featured in OAC Featured Friday
In late February, OAC staff member Andrew Paa had the chance to visit Kaleidoscope Dance Academy and observe and photograph one of their classes. This week, we’re thrilled to highlight that visit to the academy.
Dipanwita Sengupta, the founder of Kaleidoscope, started learning Indian Classical Dance when she was young. She said it helped her to foster “a deep respect and understanding of its discipline and beauty.”
Today, much of Sengupta’s work is focused on Indian Creative Dance, which she studied with Shri Kohinoor Sen Barat. This form originated in Bengal and was created by Pandit Uday Shankar. Sengupta explained it was further developed by Dr. Shambhu Bhattacharya, and that it allows for full creative expression while also exploring issues affecting society—particularly those related to socio-economic standing and women’s empowerment. She said it “also bridges the cultural divides between the East and West.”
Originally, Sengupta was a scientist conducting research focused on liver cancer at Ohio State University. Around 2017 or 2018, a fellow scientist working at the lab expressed interest in learning dance from Sengupta. It was from this that Kaleidoscope was born, and eventually, Sengupta chose to prioritize dance over her life in the lab.
Kaleidoscope currently has 50 regular students of all ages. Classes run five days a week with other programming bringing in additional community members throughout the year. Sengupta also said that the organization mentors students in India and Europe.