Indian ballerina and educator Dhvani Kothari is emerging as one of the most visible voices in a quiet but significant shift within the country's performing arts landscape: the effort to make ballet less exclusive and more representative of the people who want to learn it. As the founder of the National Ballet School of India, Kothari is not only teaching technique but also challenging the cultural and physical stereotypes that have long shaped perceptions of ballet as an art form reserved for a narrow ideal of body type, privilege and training.
Rethinking Ballet
Ballet in India has historically occupied a rarefied space, often associated with elite institutions, imported aesthetics and the assumption that only certain physiques can succeed. Kothari's message cuts directly against that orthodoxy. By arguing that ballet is "for every body type," she is advancing a more inclusive philosophy that places discipline, musicality and training above outdated notions of appearance. That argument matters in a country where access to structured dance education remains uneven and where many aspiring performers are discouraged before they begin.
Her approach reflects a broader global conversation about representation in the arts, but in India the stakes are especially high. Classical and contemporary dance forms have deep roots, yet ballet has often been treated as culturally distant, expensive and physically unforgiving. Kothari's work suggests that the barrier is not talent, but access: access to instruction, to safe training environments and to the confidence that one's body does not disqualify one from the art.
Access And Inclusion
The National Ballet School of India is central to that mission. Through the institution, Kothari is working to build a pipeline for students who may never have seen themselves reflected in traditional ballet spaces. That includes children and young dancers from varied backgrounds who might otherwise encounter ballet only as a distant, foreign discipline. By localising the form and presenting it as a viable Indian training path, the school is helping to normalise ballet within the country's broader cultural ecosystem.
This is not simply a matter of symbolism. In practical terms, widening access can reshape who enters the profession, who teaches it and how audiences understand it. A more inclusive ballet culture can also help dismantle the damaging idea that artistic excellence depends on conformity to a single body ideal. For young dancers, that message can be transformative. It can mean persistence instead of self-doubt, and participation instead of exclusion.
Kothari's stance also arrives at a moment when Indian cultural institutions are under growing pressure to broaden participation and reflect contemporary social realities. Across the arts, audiences are increasingly receptive to narratives that challenge inherited hierarchies. In that environment, ballet's future may depend less on preserving old gatekeeping norms and more on adapting to a wider and more diverse talent base.
A Wider Cultural Shift
Kothari's advocacy is important because it addresses both perception and practice. Changing perceptions requires public messaging that ballet belongs to everyone. Changing practice requires training structures that welcome different body types, different starting ages and different levels of prior exposure. The two are inseparable. Without institutional change, inclusion remains rhetorical; without cultural change, institutions struggle to attract the very students they aim to serve.
Her work also highlights a larger question for India's arts sector: how imported forms evolve when they are taught in local contexts. Ballet in India does not need to imitate Western exclusivity to be legitimate. Instead, it can develop its own identity, one that respects technique while rejecting narrow definitions of who can embody it. That is the deeper significance of Kothari's message. She is not merely defending a dance form; she is arguing for a more democratic cultural imagination.
For now, the National Ballet School of India stands as both an educational institution and a statement of intent. In Kothari's framing, ballet is not a closed world guarded by physical stereotypes. It is a discipline that can be opened, widened and redefined. In a country as diverse as India, that argument is likely to resonate far beyond the studio.