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Home , Alarmel Valli, Chandralekha (dancer), Chitra Visweswaran, Dhananjayans, Indrani Rahman, Manju Warrier

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Detail Study Of , -Natuvnar, Nritya And Nritta, Different Bani-s, Present Status, Institutions, Artists

Module 18 Institutions Of Bharatanatyam

Present day Bharatanatyam banis / बानी and schools are aplenty. There are many branches of main banis and some as far as in New Jersey in USA or Ukhrul in Manipur! Since Bharatanatyam has spread far and wide, each dancer is adding something to what was learnt and trying to extend its boundaries and body. Many dancers are also teachers today, so they are adding new poses or postures and calling it sub banis or schools.

Schools today mean individual teaching establishments, not a generic bani or style. It means in one city itself, say small town like Mysore or Baroda, there could be ten schools of Bharatanatyam. Each teaching same dance, differently. In that, there is no standardization. In one area of a big metro like or Bangalore, Mylapore or Malleswaram, there are over a dozen teachers teaching from same bani differently. This is not to break away as much as what one learnt from a guru and how much.

Schools of Bharatanatyam today within one city can be in hundreds, especially nerve centre of dance like Chennai. The , Chandrasekhars, Ambika Buch, Savitri Jagannath Rao, M.V. 1

Narasimhachari and Vasanthalakshmi, Sheejith , P.T. Narendran, Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon teach the Kalakshetra style. J. Suryanarayanamurthy, a disciple of the Dhananjayans, is a popular teacher. Sreelatha Vinod, Tulsi Badrinath, Radhika Surajit, Bhalchandra are ardent disciples of the Dhananjayans and faithfully follow their teachers’ teachings. From the K.J. Sarasa school following the Vazhuvoor bani, her prominent disciples who are in turn teachers themselves are Srekala Bharath (Tejas School of Bharatanatyam), A. Lakshmanaswamy (Nritya Lakshnana), Shanmugha Sundaram (Sarasalaya), Lavanya Ananth, Kavitha Ramu, Swarnamalya Ganesh, and so on. They are all prominent dancers too. Nandini Ramani is an exponent and teacher of the Balasaraswathi style. She has no disciple particularly promoting the bani except her own daughter Sushama Ranganathan in Chennai and Jaan Freeman in New York.

Parvathi Ghantasala’s Kala Pradarshini follows Krishnakumari Narendran’s style. In her school Abhinaya Natyalaya, Krishnakumari specializes in group productions and promotes Tamil works. Ramachandran is a disciple of Mangudi Dorairaj Iyer and in her school Kala Sadhanalaya, that’s the bani being followed. Urmila Sathyanarayanan learnt from both Dandayudhapani Pillai and K.J. Sarasa, so her style combines elements of both gurus. She says the difference in the banis is suggestive and may not be apparent to the lay person. She trains many talented students in her Natya Sankalpaa. In her school Kaladiksha, propagates the Pandanallur style that she learnt from Chokkalingam Pillai and Subbaraya Pillai. of the same gurus and same

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bani can boast of Minneapolis based Ranee Ramaswamy and her daughters Ashwini and Aparna as her popular disciples.

Malavika Sarukkai is a disciple of Guru Kalyanasundaram Pillai of the style. Vishwanathan also follows the Thanjavur style having learnt under Guru Elappa Pillai. Both are soloists. Talented dancers Uma Namboodripad Sathya Narayanan, Sukanya Ravinder, Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya, Arupa Lahiri, Jai Quehani are all prominent disciples of trained in Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai style. Chitra’s student has carved his own path in the Vaishnaivite themes of his choice, even giving religious discourses.

Bragha Bessell, Jayanthi Subramaniam, Roja Kannan, Sai Santosh Radhakrishnan follow Adyar Lakshman’s Kalakshetra style. After , her disciple Bragha is the abhinaya queen to whom scores go for training in abhinaya. and follow their Guru Kittappa Pillai’s bani. Sudharani’s students Priya Murle, Nalini Prakash, Priya and Dixit, Padma Raghavan and many others bring pride to the school.

Rhadha is a true Vazhuvoor bani exponent and Indira Rajan of Kutralam Ganesa Pillai bani has her own set of disciples. Nrithya Pillai is the granddaughter of Swamimalai Rajarathnam Pillai and represents his bani. , of course, calls her style Bharata Nrithyam, and her prominent disciples include Gayatri Kannan, Mahati Kannan and Vineet Radhakrishnan. The movements are rounded; curvaceous hip movements, serpentine arm movements, leaps, extended throws of the legs mark this style. Bala 3

Devi Chandrasekhar in New Jersey and Jayashree Rajagopalan are true proponents of Padma’s bani but Janaki Rangarajan, though she has moved away from her guru’s Bharata Nrityam and calls her style as Bharatanatyam now, continues to bring in some of the curvy movements, rather perplexing at times! As one can see, just in Chennai itself, there are so many variations of Bharatanatyam styles and this above list is by no means exhaustive but just an indication of subtle variations in banis.

In capital city like very few Bharatanatyam teachers are left. learnt from Lalitha of Triplicane who learnt from Guru Muthukumaran Pillai of the Kattumannar. Now Saroja is senior-most, active Bharatanatyam teacher of the capital city who teaches many hundred students. Her daughter-in-law Rama Vaidyanathan learnt from but now is part of Saroja Vaidyanathan school. So this is a good example for bani mixing with schools. learnt from Swarna Saraswathi (no relation of Balasarswati) and later from her own mridangist K. Dakshinamoorthy (brother of K. Dandayudhapani Pillai). What she teaches her students in Natyavruksha, is her own creative approach. Boundaries of banis are blurring today. Other teachers of Delhi are at proper schools like Triveni Kala Sangam or Sriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, where an American dancer Justin McCarthy is teaching Bharatanatyam! Many iconic dancers of yesteryears like Yamini Krishnamurthy also run schools and train students. Delhi has least number of Bharatanatyam teachers today as all seniors like Indrani , M.K. Saroja, Govindarajan Pillai (Sikkil Ramaswamy bani) have gone or moved city. Their students are seniors now like Jamuna Krishnan, Radha Marar and Jayalakshmi Eshwar. Navtej Johar trained 4

in Chennai Kalakshetra is more into contemporary themes and teaching of yoga. Delhi has more of , Orissi and Contemporary dance today than Bharatanatyam.

In Bangalore, while there are some senior gurus left like Leela Ramanathan, Radha Shridhar, Bhanumathi and Shridhar-Anuradha, they cannot be ascribed to any one bani alone. They are all teaching Bharatanatyam as they learnt from their teachers like Narmada, Kalakshetra or Pandanallur (via U.S. Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi). M. Krishnamurthy imparts training in Kalakshetra style. The Mysore bani is followed by Lalitha Srinivasan, a student of Guru Keshavamurthy who later trained in abhinaya under Dr. K. Venkatalakshamma. Lots of younger male teachers of Bharatanatyam abound in Bangalore. In fact, maximum in any metro of , like Sanjay Shantaram, Satyanarayana Raju, Praveen Kumar and Vasanth Kiran. Satyanarayana Raju and Praveen Kumar are both disciples of Narmada. Now Praveen trains under Guru C.V. Chandrasekhar of Kalakshetra bani. Many males are learning Bharatanatyam in Bangalore and teaching at junior level like Anil Iyer, Seshadri Iyengar and Mithun Shyam. Teachers who have lots of students are Anuradha Vikranth of Drishti, her gurus Nirupama- Rajendra (Nirupama learnt from Padma Subrahmanyam) while Sandhya-Kiran propagate the Kalakshetra bani since they are disciples of the Dhananjayans. Padmini Ravi remained a teacher to all of these and more before and she continues to dabble in dance. Vani Ganapathy remains Bharatanatyam star dancer of Bangalore and also teaches. Yamini Muthanna combines yoga and Bharatanatyam as does Vasundhara Doraswamy of Mysore. Rajaratnalaya Arts Foundation headed by Jayakamala Pandian follows Swamimalai SK

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Rajaratnam Pillai’s bani. Bangalore has over 100 registered Bharatanatyam dance teaching schools. Guru C. Radhakrishna follows the Mysore style of Bharatanatyam as do his disciples Padmini Shreedhar, Pulakeshi Kasturi and Sridhar.

Jayalakshmi Alva, the first and foremost disciple of K.N. Dandayudhapani Pillai, also trained in abhinaya under Swarna Saraswati and Gowri Ammal. She founded the Nrithya Kendra in Mangalore in 1974. She is ably supported by her daughter Araty Shetty.

Once the pride of India in Bharatanatyam, has very few Bharatanatyam schools of repute left. While Shanmukhananda Sabha promoted and offered a platform to+65 lots of Bharatanatyam teachers, it was Sri Raja Rajeswari Bharatha Natya Kala Mandir that created dancers, many known names in three generations like Vani Ganapathy and sisters, Namita Bodaji, Nandini Krishna, Malavika Sarukkai and many of today’s younger lot. Many reputed gurus like Mahalingam Pillai taught there and Guru Kalyanasundaram Pillai is one of the busiest Bharatanatyam gurus with legions of students. Kalasadan Institute of Fine Arts is another popular school founded by Guru Mani in 1954. Mani learnt from Karunambal and her husband Govindaraja Pillai under the guidance of Kuppiah Pillai of Sri Raja Rajeswari Bharatha Natya Kala Mandir. Some of the others teaching in Mumbai are Smt Jyothy Mohan, senior Guru Smt Raji Narayan, Dipak Parashar etc.

Today Nalanda under Science Ministry grant and Mumbai University teaches some Bharatanatyam under teachers like Malathi Agneswaran and Vaibhav Arekar. Mumbai also has influx of films and

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many stars like , and Meenakshi Seshadri showcased Bharatanatyam as they were trained in that form. Jayashree Rajagopalan represents her Guru Padma Subrahmanyam’s style in Mumbai. Lata Raman and Chandra Anand carry the torch of the Raja Rajeswari school. Prakriti Bhaskar and Prakriti Kashyap are both disciples of T.S. Kadirvelu Pillai. Sandhya Purecha propagates her Guru Acharya Parvati Kumar’s teachings and style. Deepak Mazumdar’s most prized disciple is Pavitra Bhatt who is making a good name for himself as a fine dancer and is much in demand in group productions of other gurus!

Pune also benefitted from Maratha Tanjore connections of Acharya Parvati Kumar and his student like Sucheta Chapekar Bhide. Sucheta is Kittappa Pillai’s disciple and has adapted Marathi compositions to Bharatanatyam. Today, Pune University and many individual dancers like Swati Datar, Manik Ambike, Parimal Phadke promote this form. Near Pune is the Chinmaya Naada Bindu Gurukul where the dance teacher is America returned Ramaa Bharadvaj, a prime disciple of Kamala Laxminarayanan (Vazhuvoor style). Anuradha Shinde propagates the Kalakshetra style.

Hyderabad had T.K. Narayan (disciple of Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Muthukumara Pillai) whose Academy of Bharatanatyam established in 1948 was run by him and his musician wife Jayalakshmi. Their daughter Gayatri Kesavan carries on his work in Bangalore. The daughter of V.S. Ramamoorthy (Dandayudhapani Pillai bani), Manjula Ramaswamy continues in her father’s tradition. Now leading teachers of Bharatanatyam in Hyderabad are (trained in Kalakshetra), Geeta Ganesan (disciple of

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V.S. Ramamoorthy), Rajeswari Sainath (disciple of Indra Rajan). Now has taken over the region, naturally.

Apart from forms, Shyamala Surendran, Kalamandalam Sugandhi, Kalamandalam Saraswathy, Girija Chandran, Neena Prasad, Kalamandalam Kshemavathy and many others are trained in Bharatanatyam and also impart training. N Srikanth and his wife Aswathy Nair (daughter of Kalamandalam Saraswathy) find it more lucrative to be based in Kerala than Chennai and have found much success there. Srikanth is a disciple of Padma Subrahmanyam. Many stars like Rajashree Warrier and Manju Warrier seriously pursue Bharatanatyam while others have let their dance be glossed over by filmy movements and expressions. One is not sure what bani Shobana presents in her performances as it seems to be a mix of various styles!

Present day schools are many in each city and town. Too many to count here but suffice it to say in places like Ahmedabad (Mrinalini and Sarabhai’s Darpana, Elakshi Thakore’s Nritya Bharati, Radha and Bhaskar Menon’s Mudra School of Indian Classical Dances, etc) and Baroda with the Maharaja Sayajirao University with Mohan Khokar, Smt. Anjali Merh, Kubernath Tanjorkar, C.V. Chandrasekhar, Parul Shah. Bharatanatyam has flourished in since its arrival to Baroda in late 1800s. Many students, graduating from the Dept of Dance at the M S University have started their institutions in Gujarat, India and Internationally not only in USA and UK but also in Singapore, Australia, Mauritius, Kenya and such.

In Kolkota, Khagendra Nath Barman of Kalakshetra, teaches Bharatanatyam at the Rabindra Bharati University along with Alay

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Das. Thankamani Kutty’s Kalamandalam, another go to institution for learning Bharatanatyam, has widened the scope by adapting Bharatanatyam to Bengali works like those of Rabindranath Tagore. She has more than 1000 students and some of them teach in the smaller towns of West Bengal too.

Many dancers also shifted and settled abroad like in London, Ritha Devi and in NYC, etc. Canada too had its share of such examples like Jhanak Khendry and Jai Govinda. Anne-Marie Gaston (Guru Ellappa Pillai) is a renowned exponent and writer too. Lata Pada is a product of Sri Raja Rajeswari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir in Mumbai, while Hari Krishnan is Kittappa Pillai’s disciple. Priyamvada Shankar is T. ’s disciple, so the different banis seem to be well represented in Canada.

Kathak and Bharatanatyam are the most popular dance forms in UK with many established dancers and dance gurus like Piali Ray, Chitralekha Bolar, Anusha Subramanyam (Kalakshetra), Usha Raghavan, Pushkala Gopal, Chitra Sundaram (trained under various gurus in Mumbai and Chennai) and Nina Rajarani (disciple of The Dhananjayans and Prakash Yadagudde) to name a few.

There are as many Bharatanatyam dance schools and dancers in the US. In California, Viji Prakash imparts training she had from her gurus Kalyanasundaram and Mahalingam Pillai, of the Sri Raja Rajeshwari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir; Malathi Iyengar is Narmada’s disciple; Vidhya Subramanian and Nirupama Vaidyanathan are Swamimalai Rajaratnam Pillai’s disciples. In Chicago, Hema Rajagopalan is a much sought after guru who learnt from Swarna Saraswati, K.N. Dandayudhapani Pillai and his brother. In Houston, Ratna Papa hails

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from K.J. Sarasa bani. Many Bharatanatyam students of the M S University of Baroda have settled in different parts of USA, running dance classes and making a good name for their institution like Dr Francis Barboza, Pratima Patel, Nipa Desai, Kshama Modi.

Banis today are blurring. Students are going in for learning items from various gurus of different banis. They put in their own creativity too and many times, Bharatanatyam is used as a springboard to choreograph Dance theater or creative choreography, so what you see bears no resemblance to what one can identify as a particular bani of Bharatanatyam.

Many quote realities of urban stress and times we live in to drive home the point that serious guru-shishya / गु셁-शि�य relationship of yore is not doable today. When Skype and DVD gurus are in the market, when students don’t make time and gurus are mere factories for functions projecting themselves, how can banis continue? Does it matter anyway? Today a student also learns from multiple teachers/quasi gurus, so how can the stamp of one individual bani or guru remain? What’s the relevance of a school, a style, a bani? Is it now a mere memory of the past or a meaningful reference point? Is it mere nomenclature or an important sub culture within a form? Banis are important so long as gurus are gurus and not merely money making machines. There is nothing wrong with making money but there is a difference of degree. In olden days, gurus were not in the market. They sat in their villages and all famous names trudged to them to seek knowledge. Ram Gopal, , U.S. Krishna Rao all went to their guru’s village to learn. Today, the guru has come to the city market. Or shall we say, the market has come to some gurus! End result shows: Cloning is 10

easy; making a true artiste is not. That proves yet another point: Great artistes are born, not made.1

When the dance becomes a technique of movement and a body language, with its traditional music, literature and poetry being regarded as ancillaries, which are incidental, Bharatanatyam is bound to be divested of the ideas and value structure it has been wrapped in. While the intent of art may well be the same, the inflection is changing according to the different context it is living in. And it is a question of what part of the tradition one picks out for emphasis in one's work. If tradition is what one generation passes on to the next, what a student in the diaspora will inherit from teachers born out of present day practitioners, may well be different from what is passed on to a student in the Indian context where also the totality of the dance is being seen in parts, but where a measure of music / dance / language togetherness still exists. Diaspora students are less inclined to accept without questioning, even in the early stages, what the teacher teaches. With the cross fertilizing of ideas, dance debates certainly seem to be on a different level in some of these countries. Bharatanatyam will, as far as one can see, live in many manifestations — as a tool for relaxation, as a stimulant, as a tool for revolting against norms, as worship, as just a body discipline adding to one's vocabulary of movement and whatever. What the dance means to one person may well be different from what it means to another in a different cultural milieu. After all even in India, we have produced a who thinks so very differently. Will the future Bharatanatyam have the same identity? One doubts it. And in the meanwhile one hopes like Katherine Kunhiraman that the dance is not mixed with “cream cheese and chocolate sauce” and retains a 11

measure of its own self as we recognize it. No one set of persons, it would seem, can set the dance format for all time.2

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