About Guru Payal Gokhale
Guru Payal Gokhale is a senior disciple of re-known Kathak Dancer, Pandita Maneesha tai Sathe. She is pursuing PhD in Kathak under guidance of Dr. Nandkishor Kapote from Sri Sri University, Orissa. She is “Nritya-Alankar” (Kathak) from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. She has secured All India 1st Rank in examination “Nritya-Visharada”.
.png)
She has been awarded with prestigious “Singar Mani Puraskar” in 2009 by Sur Singar Samsad. She has also been awarded with many awards – Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar Puraskar, Yuva Guru Puraskar, Kala Gaurav Puraskar to name a few.
She started learning kathak at the age of 15 merely out of interest under guidance of Guru Pta. Maneesha Tai Sathe and once completing schooling decided to pursue this as her profession. It was a tough journey doing up down from chinchwad to Pune juggling with riyaaz and studies. This difficult journey felt like a cake walk with the dedication and faith in Guru and love for the art. She started her own Payal Nrityalaya, in 2007 and since then, it has only been growing. Her craving for knowledge persuaded her to go ahead with Ph.D.
She is on panel of Lalit Kala Kendra of Pune University, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth as well as D. Y. Patil University as a Kathak Guru She was the Head of Masik Nritya Sabha of Sanskar Bharati, Chinchwad (Pune). She also has written series of Blogs related to Classical Dances. She is on the panel of Examiners for Pune University, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.
She has performed in “World Peace Art Festival” with her Guru in Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan). She has performed in “Nrutyotsav - 2” with her 36 desciples. She has performed in “Nrutyavandana” with her 30 desciples. She has choreographed “Anubandh – Aswad Sahityacha”, a Kathak choreography on Marathi Poetry. She has performed in prestigious Festivals like – Swar Sagar Festival, Nari-Shakti festival, National Youth Festival, Kala-Dhoran Festival, Sant Tukaram Beej Festival, Pune Festival, Pimpri-Chinchwad Festival, Moraya Gosavi Festival & many more. She has choreographed and performed in Advertisement of “Katraj Dudh”, Dance Drama based on Bhagwan Buddha – “Buddha Darshan” and dance drama on Shri Ram called “Ram Mahima”
She has delivered several lecture demonstrations of Kathak at various school, colleges and Institutes in Pune and also arranged Dance Workshops of re-knowned Gurus. Payal Nrityalaya organizes & conducts Masik Nrutya Sabha - “Nrutyonmesh” She is the Chairman and founder member of Payal Nrityalaya Trust which runs Kathak Dance Institutes in Chinchwad and also organizes various workshops and events for the social welfare like plastic collection drives, blood donation camps, essential donation drives in Chinchwad.
Recently she has presented her ongoing research at various conferences like Dr. D. Y. Patil School of Liberal Arts International coference on Indian Classical Dance, International Kathak Conference organised by Sri Sri Centre for advanced research in Kathak and also had her journal paper published in Sarngadeva Sarani: Research pathways in shastra and prayoga volume 1. With her topic being-“संगीत रत्नाकर और नृत्यरत्नावली मे वर्णित पेरणी या प्रेरणी नृत्यपद्धति का कथक नृत्य के परिपेक्ष्य मे अभ्यास”.