Natya Shikara was conceived in 1997, when Guru Smt.Sandhya Gopal started with just a single student. Since then, it has flourished rapidly and has drawn over 50 students from various parts of Hong Kong. Smt.Sandhya Gopal is renowned for hosting Hong Kong’s first ever Bharathanatyam Aragetram in 2003 and has since imparted her wisdom and gift to many others. Her students are popular with the Hong Kong Government and the Indian Association and are often called upon to showcase their talents in various cultural programs. Smt.Sandhya Gopal aspires to put Bharathanatyam on the world’s cultural frontier by raising the art form’s profile by giving performances on a global scale. By not only capturing talent and a sense of ethnic grace, Smt. Sandhya Gopal wishes to instill discipline and share her love for dance. Most importantly, her dream is to keep alive the Indian culture and roots by carrying forward a traditional art form.

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance which has been practised for thousands of years. The art is said to have directly evolved from Lord Shiva known as Lord Nataraja (King of Dance) who is the cosmic dancer. According to “Abhinaya Darpanam” and “Natya Shastra”, Lord Brahma gave the Natyaveda or the science of dance to Sage Bharata. Bharata presented the art form with a group of Gandharvas (heavenly musicians) and Apsaras (heavenly dancers) in the court of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva having been reminded of his majestic performance instructed Bharata the essence of he art through his followers . From there, the art pervaded the whole world. The main purpose of dance is to evoke Rasa, which means sentiment or flavour among the audience. Abhinaya Darpanam says

Yatho Hasthas Thatho Dhrishti
Yatho Dhristis Thatho Manaha
Yatho Manas Thatho Bhavaha
Yatho Bhavas Thatho Rasaha

This is very important verse and it means :

Where the Hands go, the Eyes should follow
Where the Eyes go, the Mind should follow
Where the Mind goes, the Psychological state goes
Where the Psychological state goes, Sentiment arises.

A good dancer needs to evoke the sentiment of the audience by following the essence of this verse..