Ballet shoes fastened, hair slicked back and their skirts fluffed up one last time, 60 young ballerinas will await the opening tune to glissade onto the stage in Bandra tonight. It’s not Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, or even Bach. It’s the slightly more familiar “Nant’s ingonyama bagithi baba!” If that doesn’t ring a bell, try reading it aloud to the tune of The Lion King’s opening theme song, Circle of Life. Comprising preschoolers, teens and young adults, the troupe will pull off a balancing act between the evergreen Disney classic and the structured discipline of Russian ballet.

“The most recognisable part of a ballet performance is possibly the tutus. Layered, stiff skirts that jut out from the hip, carefully customised to fit the feminine themes and characters in the story. In our adaptation, these characters are lions, giraffes, meerkats and warthogs. We knew this adaptation was going to be a wild ride even before it began,” laughs Apeksha Bhattacharyya, founder of the Academy and a ballerina with 17 years of experience under her belt.