India, July 29 -- Every Guru Purnima, we celebrate the guru. This year, my gratitude extends beyond my guru to the institution she has cultivated over three decades: Natya Vriksha. I have come to recognise that the greatest choreography of dancer Geeta Chandran may not be a work created for the stage at all. It is the institution she has built. To build an institution is among the most demanding acts of artistic practice. Choreographies conclude after the final applause, but institutions demand care every single day.

When I first entered Natya Vriksha as a young student, everyone around me believed I was enrolling in a dance school, where I would acquire a vocabulary of movement and, one day, perform. Little did I know that this was wher...