says danseusechoreographer rukmini chatterjee she saddles between two cultures effortlessly and looks at life intimately through her dance she doesnt even think for a nano second when she says i see no difference between my life and art rukmini chatterjee began her lessons in bharatnatyam under the exacting eye legendary danseuse mrinalini sarabhai she settled in paris around 1998 inspired by the creative energy and synergy of paris and the varied arts and cultures she encountered there she began a series of her own choreography in a spirit of openness to other cultural and artistic influences she comes across as an articulate and affable person whose hands moves beautifully even as she makes a point with passion she was in ahmedabad for a performance titled questioning along with the norwegian band black metal shes happy to perform in a city in which she grew up but she adds with a laugh i must say that i dont recognise ahmedabad now even though i keep visiting the city quite frequently when i was growing up it was all nice huge bungalows now its all vertical growth ask her to take a retro look at her journey and she says i have not made a distinction between life and art i have never thought of dance as a career when i first shifted to france in 1990 i didnt speak a word of french with a laugh she says i was making sounds which sounded like french eventually i learnt french as an artiste she is passionate about creating bridges between different cultures art forms artistes and worlds linking the past and the present as well as crossing borders of all sorts so as to understand ourselves and in doing so understand the other does she think that the west is looking at india with a renewed interest she says emphatically definitely india has always been a frontrunner in matters relating to art and culture today of course india is emerging as an economic superpower when you live in a different country you are constantly treading on this thin path but to be honest when you go deeper everything is universal i am in search of that dynamic balance between cultures on a lighter note ask her what is the difference between the indian audience and the french in india people clap at every step in france the audience would react after the performance says rukmini who has performed for the festival of arles the oslo world music festival the opera of oslo the royal opera house in london interestingly she has also been doing both theatre and films i am terrified before the camera the images i see afterwards are not me i am more comfortable reaching live she says rukmini picks up her inspiration from the innumerable trips she takes with her photographer husband my husband focuses tribal minorities i have travelled a lot to isolated parts of the world and when i live there with tribals there are no