Being under the tutelage of Sivakumar sir was nothing short of life-changing for me,” says Ponni, a nattuvangam student of Shivakalalayam Academy of Indian Performing Arts (SAIPA).
What elevates that statement above the regular tribute of a student to a guru is this: Ponni is a transgender.
And Ponni had found SAIPA after an unrelenting series of rejections by dance gurus around Tamil Nadu.
S Sivakumar and Sailaja Sivakumar, who run SAIPA with its main branch in Kamaraj Nagar West, Thiruvanmiyur, are among the few who had welcomed her with warm hearts.
The duo has been teaching bharatnatyam, mohini attam, vocal music and nattuvangam free of cost to transgender students and underpriviledged children.
They established SAIPA in 1996, and one of the goals set for themselves early on was that they would make efforts to make these dance forms accessible for the economically disadvantaged.
“With around 8 branches, SAIPA teaches children from the slums of Thiruvanmiyur, Beach road and Kottivakkam free of cost. There are many students in these areas who are eager to learn these dance forms but cannot afford it,” says Vyshali, a student turned teacher at SAIPA. She is one of the initial students of the institution and learnt dance free of cost herself.
The debut on-stage performance — arangetram, being an integral part in bharatnatyam training, is also offered free of cost by the directors for students who cannot afford to have them organised. Expenses towards the purchase of costume and the commissioning of orchestra are met by the gurus and their auditorium is given to the students free of cost as well.
Sivakumar says, “Around 40-50 thousand is spent on each arangetram.”
Ponni now runs a dance school of her own: Abhinaya Nrithyalaya in Ambattur, where, following in the footsteps of her guru, she offers free classes and accepts whatever her students give her as a token of love.
In order to spread the knowledge of dance all over the state, students of SAIPA have also performed in remote villages like Kumarakurichi and Ponathhi without demanding payment for the same.
“ Hailing from a divided society filled with typecasting and prejudicing, dancing alongside a variety of students indeed opened up my mind. If I am a liberal and open-minded person today, SAIPA has a huge role to play in it,” says Samyuktha Sharma, a dance student and one of the faculties of the dance institution.
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(SB Subasree is an intern with The Hindu)
