Renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and guru, writer and research scholar Lakshmi Vishwanathan died here on Thursday. She was 78. She had chest congestion and had been on medication. She complained of breathlessness in the morning and passed away suddenly, according to her sister and Carnatic vocalist Charumathi Ramachandran.
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Born to K. Vishwanathan, the brother of famous film director K. Subramanyam, and Alamelu Vishwanathan on January 27, 1944, Lakshmi gave her ‘arangetram’ at the Rasika Ranjani Sabha in Mylapore when she was 7. Among the many awards she received are the Kalaimamani from the Tamil Nadu government, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award from the President of India and titles like Nritya Chudamani (Sri Krishna Gana Sabha) and Nritya Kalanidhi (The Music Academy, Madras), as well as the Kalidas Samman.
A gold medallist in English literature from Madras University, she authored four books — Kunjamma-Ode to a Nightingale (a biography of M.S. Subbulakshmi); Women of Pride-the Devadasi Heritage; Kapaliswara Temple; and Bharatanatyam: The Tamil Heritage.
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‘Scholarly approach’
N. Murali, President of The Music Academy, said, “Her dance had an in-depth and scholarly approach underpinned by beauty and subtlety. Starting with a classical Margam format in the early stages, her dance evolved into thematic and group presentations. She can be described as a Dancer’s Dancer. She was a fine writer, scholar and researcher with many articles, lecture demonstrations and books to her credit. She had a long association with The Music Academy as a member and later as a Vice-President. She was also the recipient of many awards, including the Nritya Kalanidhi Award from The Music Academy for the year 2017.”
Bharatanatyam guru and well-known danseuse Padma Subrahmanyam said, “It is painful to digest the fact that my cousin Lakshmi Vishwanathan is no more. Apart from my personal loss with haunting memories of our childhood, it is a loss to the world of Bharatanatyam. Lakshmi was a performer, guru, writer and an ever-joyful friend of the fraternity.”
Ms. Ramachandran, who has sung for performances of Lakshmi for 20 years, said she was “very wedded to the aesthetics of music dance as she trained along with Sujaya, our sister. She was very finicky about dance orchestra standards and volume. She was the first to start English explanations for each item in the early 70s. She was obsessed with the traditional ‘Varnams’ of the Thanjavur Quartet. We learnt ‘Padams’ and ‘Javalis’ from Brinda and Mukta and Swathi Thirunal compositions from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer”.