Tuesday, 1st May 2012
Nrithya Pillai
I am proud that I initiated the process of conducting 'Vadyar 80', a homage to Swamimalai S.K. Rajarathnam, my maternal grandfather, on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary. I sent emails to all his students who now live in different parts of the world, and we started exchanging ideas about how best to commemorate his memory. After this initial step, my mother Jayakamala Pandiyan took up the task of overall coordination and planning.
The Vazhuvoor style has a simplistic beauty that emphasises charm and grace. Bharathathil Bharati is an example. Using his musical talent, my grandfather S.K. Rajarathnam used Bharatiar compositions to create a varnam and tillana to suit the format of a margam. This full-length production was the best choice to showcase an example of a work from his early career. We presented this on 7 January 2012 at the Narada Gana Sabha. Dancing with senior disciples of SKR like Ramya Harishankar and Jothi Raghavan was a wonderful experience. Sandhyasree Athmakuri also joined us for this programme. Since I was very young when he died, I did not have the opportunity to take individual lessons under his supervision, though he did watch me dance along with others as my mother conducted dance lessons. I lived with my grandparents and I do believe I learnt a lot just by being around him throughout my childhood.
Sowmya Kumaran, Director of Chicago based Nrithya Sangeeth, decided to conduct the Bharatanatyam arangetram of her 13-year-old daughter/disciple Bhavya Kumaran in her hometown Chennai on July 9 to involve family, close friends and relatives in the arangetram and seek their blessings.
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