Not many of us can claim to be successful at juggling our jobs and hobbies like Dr Raksha Karthik. The consultant dental surgeon, mother of one and a Bharatanatya dancer is at ease balancing her multiple roles.
“I enjoy being a mother, dancer and dentist. That is why I don’t feel the pressure.”
“My grandmother encouraged me to dance when she saw me groove at the age of seven. Learning how to dance was different those days. You had to begin your dance journey with structured postures and master the basics till they were perfect. Only then could we move to the next step. To be honest, it was boring to do stretches and just sit in one posture for most of the training,” she recalls.
She narrates how she was the reason for a lot of humour in the household.
“My training was confined to basics for many years. My parents would still ask me to perform at family functions.
Since I had not progressed from the sitting postures, I would do what I was taught – sit in one posture until everyone laughed!”
Having come a long way since then, Raksha says: “Now, I know the value of that training and I believe it is necessary. Master your initial steps and the rest will fall into place. It is like a tree. If the roots are not strong, the tree will not last long. Continuous hard work and practice are always a part of any art field and in Bharatanatya, it is not different.”
She rues about how parents these days are in a hurry to watch their children perform on stage and dance to songs.
“It is difficult to explain to them since they live in a time where a pizza is prepared and delivered in 30 minutes. They do not understand that a dance performance can take years to prepare and perfect. There is no fast forward mode to teaching dance. It requires consistent patience and hard work.”
An exponent of the Pandanallur and Vazhavur styles of Bharatanatya, Raksha has also been trained in the advanced form of Abhinaya or the expressional technique by B Bhanumathi and Chandrashekhar at Nritya Kalamandiram.
“A lot of work is done by the composer because he feels an emotion and shapes it into a song. I merely have to react to his music. Half the emotions are already expressed. I add the visual aspect to the song.”
Having performed at domestic and international festivals, she finds the foreign crowd to be very impressed. “I don’t like to compare them, but abroad, the audience is more silent and watches the dance intently. They read up about the dance form and are curious to know more. This makes Indian dance fascinating for them. Here, we do not value the things we have but others see it as an invaluable gift.”
Raksha points out that dance has several benefits. “It helps you focus and calms the mind. Dance is a free flow of emotion. You forget everything and jump into it trying to convey the emotion of the song through dance.”
