Prateesha is an Indian Classical Dance exponent trained in Bharatanatyam and Sattriya. She started her journey in dance at an early age of five years as she sat on the lap of her dance teacher watching her elder sister and the older students dance. Her passion for dance ever since led her on to a beautiful journey of revelations and creativity.

As a child she joined dance classes of Sattriya, Kathak and Bharatanatyam at her hometown Guwahati and to continue her training in Bharatanatyam she joined Kalakshetra, College of Fine Arts in Chennai where she learnt much more than she ever thought she would. After receiving a First Class Diploma in Bharatanatyam in 1988 she returned to Assam to start her career in dance.

Her former teacher of Sattriya Late Roseswar Saikia Barbayan came home and insisted her to take up the dance form again, which she did - getting more and more drawn to the style. She started delving deeper into it with the help of various Gurus like Late Roseswar Saikia Barbayan, Shri Ghanakanta Bora Barbayan and Shri Haricharan Bhuyan Barbayan. During this time Sattriya was trying to establish itself as yet another classical dance form. It was going through a turbulent time with too many opinions and opinion makers. Prateesha tried to do her as she moved out of her hometown Guwahati in 1993. This gave her an opportunity to propagate Sattriya outside the state.

Starting with her first lecture-demonstration at New Delhi she went ahead with many performances and lecture demonstrations in the years to come. As she travelled with her family to various cities she gave many performances of Bharatanatyam and Sattriya. From the Sabhas of Chennai like Karthik Fine Arts, Mylapore Fine Arts, Naradagana Sabha to Festivals like Nishagandhi, Malabar Mahotsav, Soorya Dance Festival, Karanth Festival, ITC Sangeet Sammellan, HCL Concert Series, Nakshatra Dance Festival and many more as she has so far given more than 100 performances. It was tough initially to get people to the performances but the hard work paid off eventually as Sattriya was declared the 8th classical dance form in 2000.

Her journey continues with lecture demonstrations and group performances as well. She has tried to take the dance to the international platform with performances at Nehru Centre, London, ICCR tours to South Korea, performance at Boston University, USA, etc. She has presented many group choreographies and collaborative works with other classical dance forms. She heads Pratishruti Foundation in Mumbai which she started in 2008 for the sole objective of propagating classical dance forms.

Prateesha has developed her own style in dance giving much importance to the technique and the preservation of the style. She has been careful not to dilute the technique and yet bring in clarity in the movements. She has styled the costume for a smooth presentation of the dance where it embellishes the dance in an aesthetic way without becoming a hindrance to movements. Apart from the traditional numbers it has been her endeavour to incorporate various other writings of Shrimanta Shankardev and Shri Madhavdev into her choreographies enriching the dance. She has ventured out of the traditional compositions to work with Hindi poetry, Bhajans, Jayadeva’s Ashthapadi, Marathi Abhangs, Assamese Ramayana and Mahabharata. Her services to the field of Sattriya continues with her undying passion for creativity.

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