India, Feb. 16 -- If someone had told 12-year-old Manas Ahire, a slum boy from Filterpada, Powai, that he would one day be a classical dance teacher, he would have probably dismissed it out of hand. Dance was something he loved, but like many children from underprivileged families, he did not have the money and exposure or a proper platform to learn.

The impossible began to gradually become a reality in 2018, the year when a programme called Nrityaparichay, under the aegis of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), opened at his school, Green Lawns English High School in Powai. Manas began learning Manipuri dance under Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Guru Latasana Devi. The training was free. It was serious. It was structured. ...