Little Nataraj would never step out during daytime when the streets of Madurai were crowded. He feared being mocked at for his effeminate mannerisms. Long after the city slept, he and a friend headed to the railway tracks and deserted roads. They danced under the cover of darkness, to cinema songs echoing from distant touring talkies. Two decades thence, Nataraj is Narthaki Nataraj, an accomplished transgender Bharatnatyam artiste and her friend Sakthi, also a dancer, has stayed with her through thick and thin.
Step by step: Narthaki Nataraj
“I never had a childhood. I was thrown out from home when I was just 11 years old. I did odd jobs, struggled for even a single meal a day and somehow managed to finish schooling. All through, I kept alive my love for dance,” recalls Narthaki, who, as a 15-year-old was in search of a guru who can teach her Bharatnatyam. Destiny took her to Thanjavur where she found Kittappa Pillai, descendant of the famous Tanjore Quartet — Chinnaya, Ponnaiya, Sivanandam and Vadivelu — considered to be the fathers of Bharatnatyam, who formulated the nuances of classical dance including adavus and abhinayas .
Step by step: Narthaki Nataraj
“I didn’t realise that the doors I knocked at were of such great honour. Only later, I learnt that Kittappa Pillai was the guru for stalwarts like Hema Malini and Yamini Krishnamurthy apart from Vyjayanti Mala, whom I admired on the screens of touring talkies in Madurai. Sakthi and I imitated her dance steps and she was our on-screen guru,” says Narthaki, who is now named for the Padma Shri award. She’s busy rescheduling her trips abroad after the announcement. She has a line of performances in the upcoming months in Norway, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Canada, England and the US and all of which are solo Bharatnatyam, that she excels in.
Step by step: Narthaki Nataraj
After almost 15 years of rigorous training under Kittappa Pillai, Narthaki became an exponent in the Nayaki bhavana tradition of the Thanjavur parampara . “I have always felt that group presentations never matched the charm of solo Bharatnatyam and led to dilution of traditional styles and sampradayams ,” says Narthaki, who is known for presenting a wide repertoire that includes Sangam Age poems, bhakti literature and contemporary songs of Bharathidasan, Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram and Bharathi. “In one of my recent shows in Japan, I performed the Appar Thiruthandagam from Thevaram , that talks of the liberation of soul. I presented the six-line poem in a 45-minute dance module. Transforming literature to dance is a beautiful process as the language of dance is all about exemplified expressions.”
Speaking of the literature of dance, Narthaki evokes the Silapathikaram . “It’s a vast music opera and a dance library,” she says. “When on stage, I imagine myself as danseuse Madhavi, one of the main characters in Silapathikaram . The literature describes her expertise in dance and she is my inspiration. Sometimes, even my rasikas , while complimenting my performances, compare me to Madhavi and that gives me a high.”
Step by step: Narthaki Nataraj
Performing to songs and keertanas in multiple languages, Narthaki makes sure she caters to the sensibility of the particular audience. “Last month, I performed in Amritsar and I researched on Punjabi folklore and classic literature before the event. I did stories and poems from Punjab. Likewise, I do Telugu keertanas in Andhra Pradesh and Oriya poems in Bhubaneswar. However, a Tamil song is a standard component in all my performances as a mark of respect to my mother tongue,” she says.
“Even though society kept chasing me for my gender choices, I have never shied away from wearing it on the sleeve. In the Madurai of the 80s and 90s, Sakthi and I were open about our identities and came out saying that we were indeed transwomen. And, there were also a few kind-hearted people who helped us when we were budding Bharatnatyam artistes,” she says. “My very first dance class was conducted by Namanoor Jeyaraman and Madurai T G Jeyaraman, who were kind enough to teach a transgender person. Similarly, Bharath K S, Chairman and Managing Director of Aparajitha and his mother were supportive through the foundation they run in Madurai and they propelled me to greater heights.”
“However, I have never used my gender identity to gain sympathy or as a tool to make my ways. Even the Padma Shri is being accorded for my expertise as a dancer and not because I am a transwoman,” says Narthaki, who runs Velliambalam Trust, that trains aspiring dancers to achieve big.
“I have trained thousands of students in Bharatnatyam and some of them have opened dance schools in different parts of the world. About 85 percent of the proceeds from the Trust is set aside for the welfare of the transgender community.”
To know more about Narthaki and her work, visit narthakinataraj.com
