By profession Prachi Dalal is an accomplished dancer who has received training in the traditional art form Kathak and also serves as the museum educator. She has bagged the cherished honor of performing as the part of ArtsAhimsa at the Summit of Iraqi and American Women. The programme was organized by the Global Peace Initiative for women. Prachi Dalal has fetched the honor of being the first dancer who has performed at the Diwali celebrations at the White House in Washington D.C.
Prachi Dalal was born in the Indian city Mumbai. From her tender age she has been inducted to the dance. At the age of seven she has started learning dance. Under the great and careful tutelage of Guru Madhurita Sarang, Prachi bloomed as a mature dancer. Prachi has completed her bachelor`s degree in Commerce form University of Bombay. Side by side she has also received training in miniature paintings from the Rajasthani artists. She felt a need to preserve the artistic cultural heritage of India in due course. To her this could take place by reaching out to the mass and by raising sensitivity for those traditional art forms.
At the University of Bombay, she joined a graduate program in Ancient Indian Culture to attain these aims. In the year 2000 she went to USA to pursue her master degree in Tourism Administration. In that course she mainly focused on the Destination Management. At the George Washington University, she has also pursued a course on Cultural-Heritage Tourism. By studying this courses she aims to broaden the ways of interaction between the tourists and the cultural heritage recourses. Prachi Dalal is endlessly striving to widen the perspectives and the sensitivity of the human nature by making connection between the past and the present.
As a Museum Educator and Community Outreach Educator, Prachi Dalal has worked at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution.. She has also bagged the honor of working as a cultural liason with the Smithsonian Center of Folklife for the 2002 Folklife Festival called "Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust" for a group of Indian artists. She also served as the teaching artist for the Freer and Sackler`s multi-visit program. In inner-city DC Public Prachi Dalal has also organized dance workshops as the teaching artist. For the special groups, she has also organized dance workshops at the Freer and Sackler galleries.
Throughout her professional career she has performed at various festivals. To mention a few, she executed her Kathak composition at Asia-Pacific Heritage family festival held in the museum called `Dancing across Cultures` from two days on May 2-3, in the year 2003. She has also organized a performance with the name of "Dances of Celebration: Folk traditions from India," on the Freer steps as part of `Art Night on the Mall`. These performances exhibited four folk dances of four different regions of India. The performance comprises of 30 dancers and musicians from the local DC area.
Prachi Dalal has also fetched the opportunity to conduct workshops in Kathak with maestros such as Pt. Birju Mahara and Smt. Kumudini Lakhia. All over India, she has performed in several productions as one of the main part of the dance troupe at Nritya Darshan. With this dance troop she has performed at the All-India Festival of Kathak in New Delhi, the Kathak festival in Lucknow, and at venues such as Nehru Center, Bombay. At this time, Prachi Dalal serves as a part of the troupe of Sarang Academy of Performing Arts. Sarang Academy of Performing Arts is based in New Jersey, USA.
