DHANANJAYANS- THE DOYEN OF BHARATANATYAM

 

In the blogchatter’s A2Z campaign, I will be presenting blogposts on ‘EXCEPTIONALLY TALENTED INDIAN ARTIST’ in the alphabetical order.  Today, D– Dhananjayans – Bharatanatyam.  First few lines on the Dance form - then about the artist.

 

“Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.’’ – Maya Angelou

 

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form of Tamil Nadu. It is taught and performed following the Bharat Muni’s Natya Shastra. Kalashetra is the ancient dance school situated in Chennai and the founder is Rukmini Devi Arundale. Here the Bharatanatyam is taught in traditional Guru Sishya Parampara. 

Bharatanatyam is performed as a team consists of a solo dancer, accompanied by musicians and one or more singers.  Modern stage productions of Bharatanatyam has been spread out and popular throughout India that has been done in different ways and have incorporated technical performances, pure dance based on non-religious ideas and fusion themes.

  Dhananjayans are the dancing duo and famous Bharatanatyam couple. Their first performance in India was in 1956 in the Rukmini Devi’s SEETA SWAYAMVARAM NAATYA NATAKAM.  The vitality of dance, their costumes, the attraction of merging of the male and female dance principles in specially conceived duets were all part of the charisma of their performances. They widely travelled across the globe giving performance at various venues.  

V.P. Dhanajayan is a prolific writer apart from a professional dancer. “Dhananjayan on Indian classical dance” and “Beyond performing art and culture; politico-socio aspect” are the two books to his credit.

BHARATA KALANJALI is the dance school started by Dhananjayans. They emphasis on imparting Indian tradition and culture to their students by setting mandatory rules.

Dhananjayans lay full credit to their guru’s for their accomplishments and they are determined to follow the footsteps of their Guru’s- Chandu Panicker and Rukmini Devi Arundale in teaching the art form and bringing out the best in their students.

(I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and hyperlink to https://www.theblogchatter.co)