Within a few weeks of my arrival in North America, as a new bride, thanks to the contacts of my father Dr. V. Raghavan, I was invited by the Syracuse University and the Colgate University, both situated in upper New York State and renowned for their Music and Dance as well as Sanskrit study departments. My performances — both lecture-demonstrations and Bharatanatyam were well received by the audience, from the U.S. and Canada. After that there was no looking back, as the cliche goes.
A student of legend Balasaraswati, I began in a small way starting a school for Bharatanatyam. A few Indian children in Montreal and a few enthusiastic ballerinas from the famous “Les Grandes Ballet Canadienne” were my students. Soon I started the Priyamvada Sankar School of Bharata Natyam in Montreal in the Fall of 1968. The first of its kind in Montreal.
The year 1969 found me getting associated with the famous Centre Monchanin Intercultural Institute, headed by Father Jacques Langlais and Father Robert Vachon. Over the next 25 years, I have given numerous lecture demonstrations and solos and student performances mostly to raise funds for the Centre’s worldwide work. I was on my toes, visitinguniversity campuses, local colleges and high schools to present lectures, give demonstrations, etc.
I would mention my weekend dance classes under Preville Fine Arts at Champlain College in St. Lambert and weekly Sanskrit classes at Concordia University as something special. For seven years — 1974-81 — I was a regular feature at the India Pavilion in the famous world exposition “EXPO 67” hosted by the city of Montreal.
A decade after the school started, the first Arangetram took place in 1980 — that of Neela Rao. It was a houseful show, covered extensively in the local newspapers. Many more followed. My personal graph was on the upswing with a series of performances at various University centres — the Mahatma Gandhi conference and festival at Yale University, Asian and India Day Celebrations in Greensboro, North Carolina; public concert at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, performance at University of Florida at Gainesville, Florida and many others.
Among the landmark presentations would be the one in the summer of 1974 accompanied by Dr. Raghavan’s explanations at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Another was the performance in October 1980 during the Wesleyan University’s Navarathri celebrations with Balasaraswati’s illustrious brothers T. Viswanathan and T. Ranganathan leading the music conferences. It is a privilege that since 1982, I have performed every summer at the Ananda Ashram of the Yoga Society of New York in the July 4 Music and Dance Festival. I cherish the title, ‘Sakshat Saraswathi,’ conferred by the founder Guru Brahmananda Saraswathi.
During the next 25 years, our school was a regular at India Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations in Montreal or sometimes in Ottawa. I loved presenting specially chosen pieces in Sanskrit to augment the theme of Canadian Asian Studies Conference of the Learned Societies Meeting held in Montreal. The specially choreographed dances we presented dressed in Tricolour for Subramanya Bharati’s songs was the highlight of the conference in 1986 on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Indian National Congress organised by Concordia University. It was attended by India’s High Commissioner for Canada and thousands of academics from all across the world.
Association with Shastri Institute
During the 1980s and 90s, I was invited to participate in many of the (Lal Bahadur) Shastri Institute functions. In fact, we had a robust association with the Shastri Institute. How can I forget the school’s collaborative efforts with the Kathakali Institute of Montreal and its artistes? One of the regular inter-cultural events in Quebec used to be organised by Maison Internationale de la Rive-Sud and my school was always invited to showcase ancient Indian culture. Over the years, thanks to our sustained efforts, our school earned the accolades of politicians and Canadian leaders, including the Prime Minister. The shows were attended by Canadian Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers, Quebec Premiers and provincial ministers and municipal mayors apart from the general public — mostly non-Indian. Thus spread the recognition of Bharata Natyam as an integral part of the Canadian and Quebec multicultural mosaic
The silver jubilee of the Priyamvada Sankar School of Bharata Natyam was celebrated in 1994 with shows at different venues in Greater Montreal. The highlight was a specially choreographed Bharatanatyam extravaganza, which included me and all my students at the famous Place des Arts of Montreal with live orchestra from Madras. My younger sister Nandini led the Madras orchestra, which included many of my original musicians. Dignitaries at all government and social levels attended this gala event in a packed auditorium. Every group, which was associated with my school during the 25 years was introduced and honoured with a commemorative plaque. The School and its founder received a long standing ovation from the 700-strong gathering.
At this function, the new instructional video, “The Dance that Gods Yearn to Witness,” was introduced to the audience and some excerpts were presented. The producers of the video were recognised. Since then, the video has been shown by PBS and other TV programmes and has also received many awards both in Canada and Europe. During the three decades — 1980-2010 — several TV and documentaries featured me and my school. We were included in several books as special chapters and articles. Radio Quebec television station presented a three-part documentary in French. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) produced a show on the school and the French arm of CBC called SRC presented a full show named “Second Regard.”
Our school continues to engage with other cultural communities and we are regularly invited by the Jewish schools, African, Italian and Greek communities, Church organisations, Bahai, Buddhist and other religious groups. Among the countless fund-raisers we presented were those special performances for the Aga Khan Foundation event, for the Centre Maghreb organisation, the Montreal Association for the Blind, Thomas Moore Institute, Eelam Tamilar Association for Refugee Relief and the Royal Victoria Hospital Foundation. We played a central role in the million-dollar fund raising effort to establish a Chair in Hinduism at the Concordia University.
It is with humility that I have to state here that I’m the longest serving member of the Interfaith Council of Montreal I was humbled when I was conferred Order of Merit by the Brossard City and the National Association for Canadians of Indian Origin (NACOI) honoured me as the Outstanding Indo-Canadian. The Government of Quebec awarded the Medal of the National Assembly. It was an honour to be a member of Montreal elite, chosen to meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to Canada.
It was an honour to perform at the grand inter-religious celebrations at the famous St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal to greet ORA 2000 — une Esperance a partager . In 2006, our school was one of the features of the Conference on World Religions after 9/11 with world-wide participation at the impressive Palais de Congres of Montreal. Last year we presented a special offering to the Canada-150 festival to celebrate 150 years of Canadian federation.
Hundreds of my students have been trained and many have made their debut. I conduct my classes in my own studio in my Brossard home and derive great satisfaction from the free Sunday classes for students with limited means at the local Hindu temple.
It is 50 years since I started the school of Bharatanatyam and so far I have adhered to the pure Balasaraswati Thanjavur tradition. My youngest student is three years (my granddaughter is just one year old and may pick up the mantle) and the oldest is 65. A few elderly students attend my workshops to overcome arthritis and dementia. So my journey continues — with the blessings of my Guru and God’s grace.
