A Turbaned Kathak Dancer

While Panjab has a long history of appreciation of Hindustani classical music, the art of dance has often been limited to exuberant folk forms. Like many boys in Panjab, Taranjot Singh grew up with bhangra (Panjabi folk dance) and Panjabi music. When he was 13 years old and a student at Kala Nikhar, a dance academy in Ludhiana, he saw one of his teachers, Pulkit Jain, performing Kathak while donning heavy ghungroos (belled anklets). 'The speed, the spins, the variation in spins, the difficult footwork—I thought it was all beautiful. And that I could do it all too,' says Singh. Jain, a student of legendary Kathak dancer Pandit Rajendra Gangani, is a noted name from the Jaipur gharana (music school), which is associated with powerful footwork and rhythmic virtuosity. 'After Pulkit Sir encouraged me, I decided to give Kathak a shot…Whatever I am today, it’s because of Kathak,' says Singh who went on to win many local youth festivals and competitions before his television stint in 2024. On Dance Deewane, a dance reality show where he reached the grand finale, he left judge actress Madhuri Dixit impressed. 'I have never seen a sardarji (Sikh) do Kathak,' she told him on the show, while the other judge, actor Suniel Shetty, said Singh’s 'warrior-like' poise left him dazzled. But Singh’s journey has been of tenacity as well, starting with addressing familial and community concerns about tying ghungroos on his feet—a sacred element in Kathak—while donning his turban and keeping his beard unshorn, both integral to Sikhi. People around him, he says, were often unkind. 'They often told my parents, what are you making your son do? You will be left disgraced. This created doubts in my mind too, but I loved Kathak too much to let it go. I turned that negativity into motivation and worked harder. This was the only way I could express myself…Initially, I wanted to prove them wrong, but the more I learned, I realized it was about sadhna (practice).’