In the past, when talented dancers from India immigrated to the U.S. to pursue higher studies, take up employment or join their spouses who found jobs there, they always looked for ways to give expression to their art. Many of them started their own institutions to teach dance to young aspirants and offer a platform for performances. They were the pioneers, whose baby steps infused Indian classical arts in the Diaspora. Thanks to them, today, Indian dance has high visibility and enjoys great respectability.
Houston, Texas, was far removed from Indian cultural activity of any kind 42 years ago when Rathna (Papa) Kumar, seniormost student of Bharatanatyam Guru K.J. Sarasa and senior disciple of Kuchipudi maestro, Vempati Chinna Satyam, arrived in this city in 1975.
She founded the Anjali Center for Performing Arts, the first dance school in Texas and one of the oldest in the U.S. Rathna offers a curriculum of Bharatanatyam in the Vazhuvoor style and the traditional Kuchipudi repertoire and organises arangetrams and rangapravesams every year with orchestral support by professional accompanists from India. She has trained over 2,000 students and also choreographed dances in more than 15 Indian languages.
Chennai : 03/01/2013 : For Friday Review : Rathna Kumar performing Bharathanatyam at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha on Wednesday . Photo : R_Shivaji Rao
Rathna has taken dance to the mainstream by organising performances, workshops and seminars and also by teaching Bharatanatyam to students at the University of Houston, Rice University, and in elementary and middle schools through the Young Audiences of Houston. In the initial years, she devised the Mirror, an innovative teaching method for her students with minimal exposure to dance. She also notated and illustrated two books — Adavu and Kuchipudi Adavu Samu — on the fundamental dance techniques of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi respectively. Rathna was the first NRI dancer to be honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2010.
Padmini Chari, a disciple of Adyar K Lakshman and Kalanidhi Narayanan, trained extensively under the Dhananjayans. Padmini taught Bharatanatyam in Munich and Vienna, from 1973 to 1981. When she moved to Houston, Texas in 1981, she founded the Nritya School of Dance in the following year. The school has grown to include a branch in New Orleans that has been running successfully for over 20 years. Padmini’s forte is imparting training in the Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam renowned for its purity.
Dr. Lavanya Rajagopalan founded Silambam Houston in 2002 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting Indian classical performing arts. It seeks to increase appreciation of the Indian artistic traditions through comprehensive arts education, outreach and exceptional programming. It also follows the tradition of a cluster of dance schools around the world run by the students of her guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathi’s dance institution Shree Bharatalaya. Dr. Rajagopalan’s significant contribution to the field of dance is the development of a library of mobile apps — the B-Natyam series.
Indrani Parthasarathy
Indrani Parthasarathy, daughter and disciple of Radha Sridhar of Bangalore, is the artistic director of Abhinaya School of Performing Arts, Houston, founded in 2001. She was also trained by Muthiah Pillai in the Pandallur style and M.R. Krishnamurthy and the Dhananjayans in the Kalakshetra style . Divyaa Unni, actor and dancer from Kerala, runs the Sreepadam School of Arts in Houston which is committed to fostering an environment that promotes the student’s interest, respect and passion for the traditional Indian art forms.
Lavanya Prabhu, disciple of Rhadha, teaches the Vazhuvoor bani at her Tatvam School of Dance established in 2015. Vedantam Raghava hails from the Kuchipudi village, and has set up a dance academy Vedantam Kalakshetram in Houston.
Pallavi Kumar was initially tutored in Kuchipudi by renowned guru, Nataraja Ramakrishna and later learnt Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi from Uma Rama Rao. She teaches both disciplines at her dance school, Laasika.
There are many schools where other styles of classical dances are taught. Uma Nagarsheth has been teaching Kathak and Bharatanatyam in Houston for over 30 years at her institute, Natya Upasana. Sunanda Nair, who did her Master’s at the Nalanda Nrithya Kala Mahavidyalaya in Mumbai and was a research scholar before she migrated to Houston, established Sunanda’s Performing Arts Center, SPARC, where she imparts training in Mohiniyattom and Bharatanatyam.
SUNANDA NAIR
Anisha Rajesh, student of Neena Prasad and founder, Upasana Kalakendra, also teaches both these styles. The cultural scene of Houston benefited with the establishment of two Odissi dance institutes. Kalaangan School of Odissi was started in 2003 by Supradipta Dutta, student of Aloka Kanungo. Aruna Mohanty provides her Odissi Academy with teachers from Bhubaneswar and makes annual visits to train students.
Aruna Mohanty
Revathi Satyu is a pioneer in bringing Bharatanatyam to Dallas by establishing the Arathi School of Dance in 1980. She had her training under illustrious gurus such as U.S. Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi, Pandanallur Muthiah Pillai, Thanjavur Kitappa Pillai and Mysore Venkatalakshamma. Madhusri Sethuraman, student of Rajaratnam Pillai, runs the Srutilaya School of dance in Dallas since 1991. Srilatha Suri, disciple of Shobha Naidu, has set up the Natyanjali Kuchipudi Dance School, a premier institute that teaches Kuchipudi.
Vinitha Subramanian has been teaching Bharatanatyam in Austin since 1982 when she established the Natyalaya School of Dance. In 2015, Puja Alepalli, disciple of Adyar K Lakshman, started the Shivanjali Center for Fine Arts in Austin, which she ran earlier in Denver since 2004. Bana Shastri Ramanath has been teaching at her Natyanjali School of Dance in Austin and San Antonio for many years. Her forte is Kalakshetra technique.
Dr. Sreedhara Akkihebbalu, student of Narmada, Bhanumathi and Kalanidhi Narayanan gave up his lucrative medical profession to teach dance and yoga at his Kaveri Natya Yoga in San Antonio. Classical dance teaching has come a long way and found acceptance and popularity among all age groups and communities in the Diaspora. Looking back, it was an uphill task initially as these pioneers needed to educate their students on Indian culture, literature and philosophy and connect them to their cultural roots besides teaching dance. They played the role of cultural ambassadors. And they have done all this for the love of dance.
