Hello! Following my last blog about Mallika Sarabhai from Darpana Academy, I would like to introduce an individual that I met while I was visiting the Academy. His name is Pinakin Thaker, and I am very impressed and awestruck by the work that he does.
Pinakin Thaker has been associated with Darpana Academy of Performing Arts for the past 25 years. For the last 15 years, Pinakin has been working with underprivileged children, teaching them about history, literature, mathematics related to dance, and instilling values such as self-confidence, discipline, duty, gender equality, and the importance of contributing to society. He says, “Acknowledging my mistakes and learning from them is also one of my personal goals.”
In addition to his work with underprivileged children, he finds it equally important to extend the same opportunities to privileged children. Pinakin is involved in projects that cater to various other groups, including neurodivergent and autistic individuals, as well as older adults. Through these projects, he and his team focus on social skill development and various therapies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he had the opportunity to travel to different states of India, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madras, Kerala, Bihar, Delhi, and Gujarat, to work with numerous children and people. Many individuals, including adults, students, and teachers, participated in his project to overcome mental stress through dance and improve physical fitness. When introducing them to dance, he also provides information about the dance's origin and its province, aiming to instill a new enthusiasm in them. Throughout the pandemic, Pinakin worked with more than 3000 people in this capacity.
He is currently working with six village schools that would normally not have the opportunities to learn about dance. I find this amazing because those children probably have many responsibilities in their daily lives that include keeping their families fed and sustained, and they likely do not get opportunities to have fun and enrich their knowledge on the arts. Pinakin and his team allow them to explore their passions and have fun with their peers, and that is truly amazing. I was reading the article “Autism and Dance: Does Dancing Benefit Autistic Kids?”, and I learned about how dancing can be an outlet for autistic kids to express themselves and relieve stress, acting as a form of therapy. Autistic children are scientifically more likely to show signs of anger and aggression because they are unaware as to how to deal with those emotions. However, dancing allows those children to channel that passion and express it in a way that is not harming themselves. Dance therapy is a lesser known therapeutic practice, however it is very beneficial and it should be introduced to children that would benefit from it. Pinakin also stresses the positive attributes children can gain by learning dance. He talks about confidence, discipline, duty, and even gender equality– a concept not commonly taught to individuals through art. I believe that this is very important because many people believe that dance is just rhythm and steps, however it teaches individuals far more than that. Pinakin and his team are setting children up to succeed in the future and triumph in other aspects of their lives. I find his work amazing because people underestimate the power music and dance have on all children. Kids that are privileged, unprivileged, neurodivergent, etc should all learn about dance in order to spark passion and also have an outlet to express themselves in their daily lives. I hope you enjoyed learning about Pinakin Thaker and his astounding work as much as I did. Thank you for reading!
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