Honouring the Mastery and Magnificence of Western Classical Ballet

News Desk, News Nation 360: Mind Body Spirit (MBS) has presented a key milestone to the city's cultural arts landscape with the inauguration of the Kolkata Ballet Festival 2026, the first-ever festival in the region dedicated exclusively to Western Classical Ballet. The new biannual movement was founded closer to home by Festival Director Prasanna Saikia and Festival Manager Nandita Mondal to remove the high travel and lodging barriers that previously required young Eastern Indian talents to commute to Mumbai for professional exposure. It is organised around four fundamental institutional pillars: evaluation, intensive training workshops, a premier national competition called SPOTLIGHT, and educational lecture demonstrations. The inaugural edition drew immense national prestige by securing internationally acclaimed ballet educator Khushcheher Dallas (Director of The School of Classical Ballet and Western Dance, Mumbai) as Guest Faculty and Chief Adjudicator, attracting enthusiastic male and female aspirants ranging in age from 5 to 45 for the workshops and from 9 to 21 for the main stage competition. Emphasising the rigorous discipline, grace, and technical alignment inherent to the classical art form, the organisers confirmed that the historic festival will return once every two years, building a sustainable, connected grassroots dance community designed to firmly place Kolkata on the global Western classical ballet map.

Pic: Krishnendu Kundu