Kingmaker and guru of folk dance

Shyamala Ramachandran is a regular at the venues where dance competitions are held at the State School Arts Festival.

She would sit quietly and watch the performances.

Very few people know that she is the guru of one of the brightest stars in the history of the festival — K.T. Usha (now known as Mohiniyattam dancer Usha Suresh Balaje).

Usha was the finest folk dancer the State festival has ever seen. She had won prizes in folk dance for six years in a row, from 1979 to 1983.

“She was brilliant in folk dance,” says Shyamala. “She did full justice to my choreographies, especially for songs like Poomala .”

Usha is not the only State festival winner Shyamala has produced. There were the likes of V.K. Prasanth, who also won the first prize in folk dance, and Sumitha S. Nair too.

“Prasanth was extremely talented and remarkably graceful,” she recalls.

“He too used to dance to Poomala , dressed up as a beautiful girl.”

She is disappointed with the quality of folk dance at the festival these days. “Many people have been telling me that I should bring back my choreographies for the festival,” she says. “I would love to.”