From Beijing to Bharathanatyam: Lei Mu’s Extraordinary Dance Story

Thirteen year old Chinese girl Lei Mu Zi wowed Chennai audience as she gracefully performed Bharatnatyam at Chennai’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Born and brought up in Beijing she learnt Bharatnatyam from a Chinese Guru Jin Shanshan since she was 3. 

Her family flew in to Chennai for her premier or Arangetram. She has become the first Chinese dancer to have learnt this Indian classical art from a Chinese dance teacher and to have  made  her debut performance in India. On what drew her to this Indian dance, Lei fondly called TuTu told tellmystory.in “I love the gestures and the culture behind. I also love the sari”. She added “My grand mother and mom introduced me to the dance classes and it became a habit”.

Lei’s Guru Jin Shanshan had learnt dance from celebrated Indian Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher Leela Samson in the nineties when she used to be  in Delhi and had established her own Bharatanatyam school in Beijing. She said “Lei works very hard. She comes for a three hour class every week and practises the other six days. In China people are slowly realising the beauty of this art form”.