Classical dance is a product of collaborative energies. Subashni Balasubramanian started her dance training at the age of six under Guru S. Vasudevan, a multifaceted artist adept at Bharatanatyam, Carnatic vocal music and nattuvangam, who has also completed his doctorate in a music-related field and learnt Chhau and Kathakali . After receiving a firm foundation from him in Bharatanatyam, Subashni — who gives her debut Bharatanatyam recital this Sunday — continued her training under Guru Subbulakshmi in Gurgaon. Subashni has also learnt Carnatic music from Guru Kamala Srinivasan.
Having been in the U.K. for about a year, where she is enrolled in a Bachelor’s programme in engineering and business management at the University of Warwick, Subashni returned to Delhi over two months ago, to train intensely for her arangetram (debut). When she performs this Sunday evening, the event will be an example of a very particular kind of collaboration, and education to boot.While Vasudevan has choreographed the pieces to be performed, his two senior students, Varsha Ramkumar and Akshaya Ravichandran have been training Subashni, making corrections and adapting the compositions to her personality. They have been an extension of their guru’s thought processes. As the assistants who execute his ideas by putting Subashni through her paces, they have not only left him free, in the two-month run-up to the arangetram, to look into the finer details of the grooming process, they have also learnt to take responsibility and see dance from a larger perspective. Subashni will perform a pushpanjali (dance based on floral offering), a composition dedicated to Ganesha the remover of obstacles and a hymn to Goddess Durga among other pieces. Her varnam, the central piece with elaborate technical and expressional requirements, is in raga Behag. Besides Guru Vasudevan who will lead the orchestra with nattuvangam, the accompanying artists will be K. Venkateshwaran (vocal), Tanjavur Kesavan (mridangam), Raghavendra Prasath (violin), Rajat Prasanna (flute) and Yagnaraman Iyer (morsunkh).
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