Shalini Juteram – The Little Dancing Queen

Shalini Juteram, a Form Four student of SWAHA Hindu College, first started dancing when she was five (5) years old, with the Sharda School of Dance and also, the UWI Dance Theatre. Today, Shalini has accomplished, in the art of Dance, what would have taken another person, a lifetime to achieve.

Shalini is a vibrant young lady, whose passion for dance, led her to tour the Western hemisphere. She was part of the 4H Cultural Exchange of Washington, USA in 2008. She has plans to tour other countries such as Canada later on in her dancing career. Shalini was a member of the prestigious Kiss Natraj Dance group for eight (8) years. She even went on to perform in the National Council of Indian Culture in 2009.

Shalini dances at various cultural events, weddings and other occasions. She has participated in numerous dance competitions nationwide. Only recently she placed 3rd in the Finals of the Children of Mastana Bahar [2010], winning a prize of twelve thousand dollars. She explained that coming 3rd was not an easy process. Her winning performance featured a Lord Shiva dance, in the Tandava style which was well choreographed by Shalini’s dance tutors, Mr Vishal Pooran of the Amritam Shakti Dance Company and Ms Sita Persad, who is a journalist as well as a dance instructor with the Shakti Devi Dance Company.

Why do a dance featuring Lord Shiva? Well, Shalini explained that He is her favorite deity and He inspires her daily to be her best. She is also very fond of the Tandava style of dance. The song she chose was energetic and vibrant to reflect the positive energy of Lord Shiva.

So where will Shalini go from here? She wants to continue with the Bharat Natyam and Odissi styles of Classical Dance, which may one day, take her to the land of India, where she hopes to learn and perform this specialized field. For now, however, Shalini hopes to further her dance studies at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

Shalini wishes to thank her parents for being her main promoting agents as well as her extended family who inspired her to continue her career, as they themselves are part of promoting Indian Culture through dance, song and music. Most of all, Shalini is thankful to God, for blessing her with the ability to dance and perform successfully in this lifetime.