Revisiting her battle with breast cancer, acclaimed danseuse Dr Ananda Shankar Jayant, in a stirring discussion with Jamaican Olympic track star and cancer survivor Novlene Williams-Mills on BBC radio, spoke about the power of channeling one's passion to "conquer" a disease that dispirits as much as it kills.
"Cancer comes to us with so much melodrama, so much clutter, that we already give in before we are even able to deal with it. What really kept me centered and moored was my dance. I was so focused on dance that I wasn't mentally going into the negative space cancer was taking me to. That helped me deal with the physical changes," Jayant said.
The Padmasri-winning exponent of the Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi dance forms was speaking with Williams-Mills on The Conversation, a BBC World Service radio program that brings together two women from different cultures to share their experiences on a select topic. Their individual stories about overcoming cancer were broadcast in a half-hour episode on Monday that is now available on the BBC website.