Bharatanatyam is an integral part of our culture and the people of the Tamil speaking regions of India are known to be among the best practitioners of this ancient dance form. Dance has been immortalized in Tamilnadu.
Bharatanatyam is an integral part of our culture and the people of the Tamil speaking regions of India are known to be among the best practitioners of this ancient dance form. Dance has been immortalized in Tamilnadu.
A number of temples, have sculptures ad frescoes representing Bharatam. The ancient Sage Bharatamuni has given a lot of information on dance and guidance is available through his book on Natya Sastra. A number of novels and movies have brought Bharatam to the culture loving audiences of our country. Authors like ' Kalki ' Krishnamurthy have added to the rich repertoire with novels like ' Sivakamiyin Sabatham '.
Quite a few movies have given the public a good taste of Bharatam and they include - Vanjikottai Valiban, Konjum Salangai, Thillana Mohanambal etc., Stars including Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, Kumari Kamala and others had portrayed Bharatam in a marvelous manner. Rukminidevi Arundale and Thanjavur Balasaraswathi have done much by devoting their energies in the interest of Bharatam.
A number of teachers like Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai made sure that their students did well, both on and off the screen. The Chidambaram Nataraja Temple is known for the globally famous dancing Nataraja and is one of the Pancha Sabha Kshethrams and the others are Rajathasabapathy : Madurai, Thamrasabapathy : Tirunelveli, Chithrasabapathy : Kuttralam and Rathinasabapathy : Thiruvalangadu.
Coimbatore is known as ' Melaichidambaram', Thiruvinjailulam is ' Chinna Chidambaram ' while Thiru Uthirakosamangai is Adhi Chidambaram. The tenth century bronze of Lord Nataraja at the ' Kanakasabhai ' in Perur is fabulous and the yearly ' Natyanjali ' festival conducted by Gurumurthy .S of the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis is legendary.
Today Coimbatore boasts of a number of schools for dance and many of the teachers have excelled in creating a right atmosphere. Years ago Kalaimamani K.J.Sarasa used to visit Coimbatore in order to train a number of students. Many of her students had excelled by performing in a number places around the world. The famous music and dance critic Subbudu is a son in law of Coimbatore and his articles created waves in the world of music and dance.
Vajra, the daughter of Deepa and Balaji is keen to join the long list of dancers who have chosen dance as their career for life. The young dancer is pursuing her M.A in Bharatanatyam at the Madras University. Vajra had done her schooling at the Stanes and G.D Schools before completing a B.Com from the P.S.G College of Arts and Science. This was followed by a B.A in Bharatanatyam through correspondence at the Annamalai University and now she is pursuing an M.A in Bharatanatyam at the Madras University in Chennai.
Vajra shared some information about her pursuit and the academic aspect connected with the same," My first teacher was Poornima Kaushik, later I learnt under Lavanya Shankar, Archana and Maya Shyamsundar at Chennai. I am a student of the Vazhuvoor bani. At college we do not follow a particular ' bani ' for some belong to the ' Pandanallur ' bani too. The faculty at the University are Dr.Lakshmi Ramaswamy and Shrilatha Vinod.
They belong to different schools of dance. They teach us for sometime everyday. The theory and music papers are by the other members of the faculty. I took my post graduate programme because I wanted to know more besides gaining a good exposure. Each dancer has his or her methods of dancing and connecting with the audience. As we see and do more performances we become better dancers. We are 17 students in my class and 2 of us are from Coimbatore. "
Coimbatore has several dance schools and the teachers include Jayanthi Ramachandra, Lavanya Shankar, Mridula Rai, Vazhuvoor Pazhaniappan and Revathi Anandkumar among many other good teachers. However very few of the students have chosen a formal route by joining the programme in a University. Its surprising to note that there are just 2 students pursuing this programme from the Coimbatore region!
" Going to the University for learning dance is quite helpful for its helps dancers like us to get grilled and skilled while exposing ourselves with theory and music. Its an opportunity to plan for long term knowledge acquisition. A regular school or college going dancer does not get an opportunity to indulge in Bharatam fully. Therefore people who wish to learn Bharatam properly in order to pursue a life time in dance must learn from everyone - the free lance teachers who run ' sabha schools ' while also doing formatted programmes at the University. Kids stop learning dance after their ninth standard in order to compete with the rest. However if everyone pursues some art or craft, the competition will still be there but they will be enriched in the process, " stated an expressive Vajra who was in town to do programme ' Meenakshi Kalyanam ' ( her own production ) at Priya Kunj in R.S.Puram for the ' Gopiyar Bhajanotsavam Mandali '.
Vajra Balaji shared more details about her passion, " I began to dance from the age of 10 and now I am dancing for the past 12 years. My mother put me in a dance class and I began liking it. Some people say that the book they read connects with the soul, similarly dance connects me with the soul. We did a dance video in February 2018. Back at Chennai we try to understand the origin of tradition. Learning more about Nattuvangam and Nattuvanaars are part of the course at the University. It was fascinating to learn about Ramiah Pillai. A number of books connected with dance are referred to by us and they include Natya Sastra, Panchamarabhu and Nritta Ratnavali. A dancer should have a good knowledge of music, thalam, nattuvangam, costuming, stage arrangement and management, literature, history, epics, stories from many sources, changes in contemporary life patterns, sound, light and make up. It is expected of us to be aware of the compositions of musicians and should choose ' items ' based on the time of the year and the type of audience. "
The dancer added further by stating that the ' padham ' of an old poet might appear simple but will have many interpretations, meanings and depth within. She felt that unless the dancer has a knowledge of poetry, culture and heritage it will not be possible to bring out the best. She wants to be teaching and enjoying ' Bharatam' all her life. " A big thanks to mom and dad for their support. My sister Pooja has been motivating me a lot ad I discuss every programme with my family and then go about it. All my Gurus are have inspired and I give full credit to them. An ' ARANGETRAM ' is just the beginning, " smiled Vajra, the dancer.
A number of temples, have sculptures ad frescoes representing Bharatam. The ancient Sage Bharatamuni has given a lot of information on dance and guidance is available through his book on Natya Sastra. A number of novels and movies have brought Bharatam to the culture loving audiences of our country. Authors like ' Kalki ' Krishnamurthy have added to the rich repertoire with novels like ' Sivakamiyin Sabatham '.
Quite a few movies have given the public a good taste of Bharatam and they include - Vanjikottai Valiban, Konjum Salangai, Thillana Mohanambal etc., Stars including Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, Kumari Kamala and others had portrayed Bharatam in a marvelous manner. Rukminidevi Arundale and Thanjavur Balasaraswathi have done much by devoting their energies in the interest of Bharatam.
A number of teachers like Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai made sure that their students did well, both on and off the screen. The Chidambaram Nataraja Temple is known for the globally famous dancing Nataraja and is one of the Pancha Sabha Kshethrams and the others are Rajathasabapathy : Madurai, Thamrasabapathy : Tirunelveli, Chithrasabapathy : Kuttralam and Rathinasabapathy : Thiruvalangadu.
Coimbatore is known as ' Melaichidambaram', Thiruvinjailulam is ' Chinna Chidambaram ' while Thiru Uthirakosamangai is Adhi Chidambaram. The tenth century bronze of Lord Nataraja at the ' Kanakasabhai ' in Perur is fabulous and the yearly ' Natyanjali ' festival conducted by Gurumurthy .S of the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis is legendary.
Today Coimbatore boasts of a number of schools for dance and many of the teachers have excelled in creating a right atmosphere. Years ago Kalaimamani K.J.Sarasa used to visit Coimbatore in order to train a number of students. Many of her students had excelled by performing in a number places around the world. The famous music and dance critic Subbudu is a son in law of Coimbatore and his articles created waves in the world of music and dance.
Vajra, the daughter of Deepa and Balaji is keen to join the long list of dancers who have chosen dance as their career for life. The young dancer is pursuing her M.A in Bharatanatyam at the Madras University. Vajra had done her schooling at the Stanes and G.D Schools before completing a B.Com from the P.S.G College of Arts and Science. This was followed by a B.A in Bharatanatyam through correspondence at the Annamalai University and now she is pursuing an M.A in Bharatanatyam at the Madras University in Chennai.
Vajra shared some information about her pursuit and the academic aspect connected with the same," My first teacher was Poornima Kaushik, later I learnt under Lavanya Shankar, Archana and Maya Shyamsundar at Chennai. I am a student of the Vazhuvoor bani. At college we do not follow a particular ' bani ' for some belong to the ' Pandanallur ' bani too. The faculty at the University are Dr.Lakshmi Ramaswamy and Shrilatha Vinod.
They belong to different schools of dance. They teach us for sometime everyday. The theory and music papers are by the other members of the faculty. I took my post graduate programme because I wanted to know more besides gaining a good exposure. Each dancer has his or her methods of dancing and connecting with the audience. As we see and do more performances we become better dancers. We are 17 students in my class and 2 of us are from Coimbatore. "
Coimbatore has several dance schools and the teachers include Jayanthi Ramachandra, Lavanya Shankar, Mridula Rai, Vazhuvoor Pazhaniappan and Revathi Anandkumar among many other good teachers. However very few of the students have chosen a formal route by joining the programme in a University. Its surprising to note that there are just 2 students pursuing this programme from the Coimbatore region!
" Going to the University for learning dance is quite helpful for its helps dancers like us to get grilled and skilled while exposing ourselves with theory and music. Its an opportunity to plan for long term knowledge acquisition. A regular school or college going dancer does not get an opportunity to indulge in Bharatam fully. Therefore people who wish to learn Bharatam properly in order to pursue a life time in dance must learn from everyone - the free lance teachers who run ' sabha schools ' while also doing formatted programmes at the University. Kids stop learning dance after their ninth standard in order to compete with the rest. However if everyone pursues some art or craft, the competition will still be there but they will be enriched in the process, " stated an expressive Vajra who was in town to do programme ' Meenakshi Kalyanam ' ( her own production ) at Priya Kunj in R.S.Puram for the ' Gopiyar Bhajanotsavam Mandali '.
Vajra Balaji shared more details about her passion, " I began to dance from the age of 10 and now I am dancing for the past 12 years. My mother put me in a dance class and I began liking it. Some people say that the book they read connects with the soul, similarly dance connects me with the soul. We did a dance video in February 2018. Back at Chennai we try to understand the origin of tradition. Learning more about Nattuvangam and Nattuvanaars are part of the course at the University. It was fascinating to learn about Ramiah Pillai. A number of books connected with dance are referred to by us and they include Natya Sastra, Panchamarabhu and Nritta Ratnavali. A dancer should have a good knowledge of music, thalam, nattuvangam, costuming, stage arrangement and management, literature, history, epics, stories from many sources, changes in contemporary life patterns, sound, light and make up. It is expected of us to be aware of the compositions of musicians and should choose ' items ' based on the time of the year and the type of audience. "
The dancer added further by stating that the ' padham ' of an old poet might appear simple but will have many interpretations, meanings and depth within. She felt that unless the dancer has a knowledge of poetry, culture and heritage it will not be possible to bring out the best. She wants to be teaching and enjoying ' Bharatam' all her life. " A big thanks to mom and dad for their support. My sister Pooja has been motivating me a lot ad I discuss every programme with my family and then go about it. All my Gurus are have inspired and I give full credit to them. An ' ARANGETRAM ' is just the beginning, " smiled Vajra, the dancer.