Anuradha Venkataraman started learning Bharatanatya when she was seven. Thirty years later her passion is still alive.
“I come from a traditional South Indian family, where children are taught classical art forms early in their life. When I turned 20 I decided to take dance as my profession,” says the young dancer.
She then went on to explore theatre a few years ago. “I started off with just the movement part and used no verbal expression. I challenged myself and came up with a one-woman play on Shikhandi and felt verbal expression is more approachable and reaches a larger number,” she opines.
Does she mean dance has a niche audience?
“Whether we accept it or not, yes. It’s more like an acquired taste.
“Its language is archaic with lot of poetry and belongs to a different time period than what we live in today.
“I try and make my dance more contemporary these days by blending it with theatre.”
Anuradha went on to work on Project 360 with IFA “where theatre and dance were important aspects of my project. I also used many elements of theatre to depict Sita from Adbhuta Ramayana . The mission is to not to stick to Bharatanatya repertoire itself as today there is a blending in of all art forms. I love interdisciplinary art forms as it touches people in a very different way.” Her association with SPIC MACAY triggered off her passion to teach the arts to many around Jakkur, where she lives.
“I felt just talking to children was not enough. I wanted to provide a platform for them to learn the arts as well, especially underprivileged children.”
Anuradha then started Ahum (art heart u &mind), “which reaches out to people living in North Bengaluru. I wanted to do a community-based art project. Where you get the entire community involved in,” says the dancer who has reached out to various Government schools in and around Jakkur with the help of Satya Foundation.
Together they are organising “Beyond Boundaries”, with “over 40 children from these schools and culminate in a performance on April 3 at the CEO Centre at SAIACS. Kothanur.
To make this dream a reality, Anuradha is looking “at crowd funding for the event as it’s a free workshop for children called KalaKrida.”
The venue will be # 42, Satyashri, Sampigehalli, Jakkur. Artistes who will facilitate the workshop are -- Havish Sreenath (theatre), Shashikala Reddy (dance), Srimatha Ramanand (music) and Sabarmati (painting).
“People can contribute towards one child’s snacks for 30 days which is around Rs. 1,500, One child’s total cost for performance is around Rs. 1,500. Every activity will be up on the website.”
Contributions can be made through - https://www.ketto.
org/kalakrida
