A versatile polyglot, Shilpa’s proficiency lies in translating texts, to dance, and between four languages – English, Hindi, Marathi, and French. Following her initial learning in Indore under Dr. Suchitra Harmalkar, she underwent long and rigorous training in Kathak with Vidushi Shama Bhate. She established the Bilvaani School of Dance and Movement Based Learning and currently works on applying techniques from Indian classical dance and music to school pedagogy.
With a Master’s degree in dance, as well as French, Shilpa has the unique ability to theorize, analyse as well as precisely articulate her knowledge of dance – an ability that helped her co-author her first ever dance biography alongside her Guru Vidushi Shama Bhate and noted dance scholar Dr. Arshiya Sethi.
Shilpa was a teacher at Nadroop for over nine years and was very popular among young students. While at Nadroop, she was one of the lead dancers in all the group compositions and choreographies that were presented by Vidushi Shama Bhate and assisted her guru in teaching, organizing workshops, lecture-demonstrations, and performances of eminent artists.
She has been running her own institute of dance for the past 20 years. For the past six years, she has been working with numerous alternative learning spaces in order to develop a dance and movement-based methodology for teaching languages, mathematics and history-geography to school children.
Bilvaani began as a nameless dream of its young founder passionate about teaching dance. Teaching Kathak to young learners in small batches for over 18 years, the dream has matured with its founder. Today, the institute’s vision encompasses much more than just teaching, learning and performing classical dance. With the strong belief that dance is a language and language is an art, the founder has been working in the cusp of dance and language for the past decade or so, merging her knowledge and experience from both the disciplines for various pedagogic, artistic, choreographic and academic projects. Convinced that dance can play a much larger role than a mere hobby in a child’s life, Bilvaani is all set to offer modules for dance and movement-based learning of scholastic subjects like Languages, Mathematics, History and Geography for school going children, in addition to regular training in Kathak.
To integrate classical dance into mainstream education, making learning enjoyable and long-lasting for the students, while providing more avenues of work for professional dancers, nurturing an educated dance audience for the future, as a by-product of the process.
Qualified Teachers
Years of Experience
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Firmly rooted in the age-old Guru-Shishya Parampara of our classical arts, teaching at Bilvaani is deeply inspired by Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s three-fold approach to education that aims at nurturing all three faculties of the human being – THINKING, FEELING and WILLING. It is a fact well known that learning any art form, and especially dance, has a profound impact on a child’s holistic development i.e. the development of the MIND, SOUL and BODY. While we prepare our students to be excellent dancers, we are convinced that dance can play a much larger role than a mere hobby in a child’s life. We truly believe that elements from Indian classical dance and music can be effectively used not only for teaching languages, mathematics, history-geography, communication skills, team building and much more, that they need to lead healthy and happy lives. We ensure that our students’ understanding of dance and interest in it is not limited to performance alone, but also that they are able to use it to access other disciplines of knowledge and dance becomes an eternal source of joy for them.
Ta thai thai tat has been a part of my life since I was a baby and I am lucky enough to be able to learn Kathak with one of those who made it so... I have always loved dancing but I started learning Kathak at the age of 7. With Shilpa Tai what I learned was more than just Hastaks and Tukdas...She made me understand how these were all connected to my daily life and expression. Her teaching was never a sermon but a discussion, a chat, a fun-filled conversation ! Shilpa Tai has made dance a holistic experience where rhythm merges with Maths, space becomes a painting... Looking forward to continue on this mind blowing journey of discovering dance !
I learnt Kathak from Shilpa Tai since I was 8 years old. These years were truly amazing. Her motivations and expert dance training throughout the years have helped me become a better dancer. Her passion in Kathak can be seen in her teaching. She is a skilled teacher and motivates her students to give their best in other walks of life as well. Shilpa Tai is an enthusiastic, kind, and dedicated teacher! Thank you for all the motivation and inspiration you have given me!
My daughter Maitreyi had the opportunity of participating in Shilpa Bhide's 'Dance and Movement based Learning' workshop and what a wonderful experience it was for her. A novel way of learning poems, maths, tables among other things. We were particularly impressed by Shilpa's innovative ideas about how languages, maths, history and other other subjects can be learnt easily through the medium of dance. The process has enriched Maitreyi's learning experience and given her added confidence. We are looking forward to more such activities and highly recommend it to all parents.
Ta thai thai tat has been a part of my life since I was a baby and I am lucky enough to be able to learn Kathak with one of those who made it so... I have always loved dancing but I started learning Kathak at the age of 7. With Shilpa Tai what I learned was more than just Hastaks and Tukdas...She made me understand how these were all connected to my daily life and expression. Her teaching was never a sermon but a discussion, a chat, a fun-filled conversation ! Shilpa Tai has made dance a holistic experience where rhythm merges with Maths, space becomes a painting... Looking forward to continue on this mind blowing journey of discovering dance !
I learnt Kathak from Shilpa Tai since I was 8 years old. These years were truly amazing. Her motivations and expert dance training throughout the years have helped me become a better dancer. Her passion in Kathak can be seen in her teaching. She is a skilled teacher and motivates her students to give their best in other walks of life as well. Shilpa Tai is an enthusiastic, kind, and dedicated teacher! Thank you for all the motivation and inspiration you have given me!
My daughter Maitreyi had the opportunity of participating in Shilpa Bhide's 'Dance and Movement based Learning' workshop and what a wonderful experience it was for her. A novel way of learning poems, maths, tables among other things. We were particularly impressed by Shilpa's innovative ideas about how languages, maths, history and other other subjects can be learnt easily through the medium of dance. The process has enriched Maitreyi's learning experience and given her added confidence. We are looking forward to more such activities and highly recommend it to all parents.
Ta thai thai tat has been a part of my life since I was a baby and I am lucky enough to be able to learn Kathak with one of those who made it so... I have always loved dancing but I started learning Kathak at the age of 7. With Shilpa Tai what I learned was more than just Hastaks and Tukdas...She made me understand how these were all connected to my daily life and expression. Her teaching was never a sermon but a discussion, a chat, a fun-filled conversation ! Shilpa Tai has made dance a holistic experience where rhythm merges with Maths, space becomes a painting... Looking forward to continue on this mind blowing journey of discovering dance !
I learnt Kathak from Shilpa Tai since I was 8 years old. These years were truly amazing. Her motivations and expert dance training throughout the years have helped me become a better dancer. Her passion in Kathak can be seen in her teaching. She is a skilled teacher and motivates her students to give their best in other walks of life as well. Shilpa Tai is an enthusiastic, kind, and dedicated teacher! Thank you for all the motivation and inspiration you have given me!
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