When you're the daughter of an Indian father and a Russian mother, nobody would blame you if you grew up feeling a little culturally confused But this wasn't the case with Spitliner Tulasi. She grew up watching movies and music videos from her dad's motherland And she came to realize that she had a passion for dancing fast forward some years And she's now an accomplished cutback dancer with an international profile including being a star performer with the cutback ruckers The Jersey-based Jazzy Masala creative hosted the ruckers recently and we met up with Spitliner India and Russia have something of a long-standing love affair with Indian movies enjoying an enthusiastic following in Russia Even so, Svetlana Tulasi does present an unusual blend of cultures and Zaki was curious to map out her backstory When I think of Russia, I think of Snowford and Expert Ballerinas So coming across a claim dancer, Spitliner Tulasi was no surprise at all until I found out that her expertise was in Kathak and Bollywood dancing So obviously, I had to find out more Spitliner! It is so wonderful to have you in South Africa Thank you for having me Can you give us some insight into who Spitliner Tulasi is? Well, I am half Russian, half Indian, I grew up in Moscow and I'm a performing artist At what point did you become serious about being a professional entertainer? That happened a couple of years ago actually, I've been dancing my whole life But I never thought until lately that this is going to be something I'm going to be doing all the time So it's just been a couple of years that I've been touring with like crazy, performing, teaching, choreographing, filming How did you discover your love of dance? It was a tough love at the beginning because I started then I quit, then I restarted, then I quit again And then from the third attempt I stayed and that was the time when I met my Guruji Someone that taught me not just dance but I would say life She would grab some tea That would be lovely Svetlana's Guru was a graduate of the National Institute of Katak in Delhi While Svetlana completed a classical dance degree at the Paryag Sangeet Samithi University of Indian classical music and dance in Allahabad Svetlana, how did you go about preparing for your career? Did you study dance? Yes, I have a degree in Katak dance and my teacher throughout this whole time She has been the biggest force in my artistic path She saw something in me when I started, something I didn't see at the time She just made me grow and I'm beyond grateful to have that experience in my life Has your Russian heritage affected the way you perform as an Indian dancer? Russian is famous for having athletes and artists in ballet, in rhythmical gymnastics And that requires a lot of discipline So my teacher since she was also Russian, she has applied the same techniques to teaching me Katak Even though it is a traditional Indian art form, I've been learning it from her in a very systematic Russian way So I think that helped a lot to build a structure that you can share with others What have been some of the highlights of your career? I've done a couple of TV shows so far Ukraine's got talent and then Russia's got talent And then I've been a choreographer at a so-called kick-in dance in Ukraine I've also done a TV show in India And I've performed all over the world together with my team, with Kumar Sharma and Katak Rockers We've traveled from North to South America, Europe, Asia, everywhere all over the world I'm just beyond grateful to be able to do this for a living How did the collaboration between Katak Rockers and Jazzing Masala come about? The addition specifically to perform with us, we were surprised to see so much talent in this country They had just a couple of days to learn very complex choreographies I think they did a brilliant job, they were very dedicated, very hard-working And I really, really appreciate that You've seen some of the performance who you admire and who inspire you My biggest inspiration is Kumar Sharma We just got rid of my dance partner and beyond grateful to be able to perform with him I saw his videos a couple of years ago and I thought, wow, this guy is nice We should dance together Incredible Katak dancer, very professional, very crisp and sharp and elegant and incredible stage presence You're now studying acting I've always loved movies, Hollywood, Bollywood, everything And I discovered that acting is something that really, really helps you in dance Because it teaches you how to express what you feel in the most honest and truthful way I believe that these two art forms kind of complement each other and that's what eventually I would love to do You also teach dancing Yes, I work as a dance teacher as well It just brings me other joy to see people so passionate about dancing Wanting to learn so much and I'm just happy to share whatever I know To let them experience this magic of Indian dance I would love it if you could teach me a move or two Sure, thank you I'm going to kick my shoes off Oh yeah, where do we start? So this is the first gesture that we go to learn And we put our hands right in front of our body One line between your elbows So what we're going to do is One, two, three, four And then we come back And then we go to the other side Two The hand gestures are so intricate and stylized Do they have a meaning? Usually we don't have a meaning for a specific hand gesture A combination of gestures in motion creates a meaning So for example we have this gesture which is called alapadma It doesn't have a specific meaning but when you do it like this It becomes a lotus flower Right? So for example we have this combination which is a bird It has beautiful story to it Once you start using those gestures in motion in the choreography And that's how you create magic So then I could watch you for hours Thank you so much We're performing tonight at the Lyric Theater Should we get going? It's good The Katakurakas have an international acclaim for their shows And despite Vidlana's talented experience She always makes time for just one more rehearsal before performance Even while rehearsing Vidlana performs every move with passion and fire You're gorgeous Thank you so much Vidlana what kind of preparation goes into a performance? Whenever it is about 8 hours a day we offer rehearsals Because we're a group we want to make sure that we look synchronized So we have to train hard That's what makes a performance nice and enjoyable for the audience What advice do you have for aspiring performers out there? It's like with gym, like with any sports You have to dedicate yourself fully to it, you have to commit And you will reach where you want to be Break a leg for this evening Thank you so much What?