Sowing the seeds of love...

Bernama reporter R. Ratcharathan shares his journey in the Indian classical dance of Bharathanatyam and Arangetram.


As the legendary philosopher Lao Tzu once said: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This indeed holds true for my journey in dance.
  I was seven years old when my parents asked me to accompany my younger sister to an Indian classical dance class, the Bharathanatyam, as she did not want to go alone.
 I said "yes" without hesitation. I had always loved the Indian classical
dance and often found myself mesmerised watching dancers perform the divine art.
 So at age seven, I tied a scarf around my hips and started paving my path into the world of dance. I have never looked back since.

  I can still vividly recall the first day of dance class under the guidance of my teacher Jeyalakshmi. My legs were riddled with aches. However, those painful steps I used to dread taking on the dance floor have now transformed into fluid movements taken with ease, thanks to the years of dedication and practice.
  I cannot help but smile when I recall my earlier days training, where I was the only boy in a class full of girls.
  My dream was to graduate in Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form of Southern India.
 My love and fervour for this graceful dance pushed me to work hard atachieving the dream, which was realised on Nov 26 last year.
 Nearly two decades have passed since I first ventured into the Indian classical dance and today, at 26, I am still as passionate about it as I was when I first started.

HALF JOURNALIST, HALF DANCER
   

   Together with my sister, R. Uganthana, 24, I performed the Bharathanatyam Arangetram, a three-hour dance recital at the Temple of Fine Arts in Brickfields.
   It took me almost 15 years to reach the ultimate stage in learning Bharathanatyam, the 'Arangetram'.
  Arangetram is a debut on stage performance by a classical dancer upon completion of years of training. It is considered to be the greatest moment for any classical Indian dancer.
  All that hard work and tireless hours put into training for 15 years paid off when my teacher Visva Laxmi Sivalingam honoured me with the title 'Nruthiya Nitharsannan' for my dance performance on Arangetram day.
  The journey to reach the stage of Arangetram has been long and arduous for me.
  My work as a journalist for the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) has certainly presented me with the challenge of balancing time between work, practice and family.
  My working schedule can be rather hectic but this did not deter me from
fully utilising my off days to practice and master all the moves of the dance.

THREE-YEAR BREAK

   There was a time when I had to put on hold my passion for the oldest classical dance tradition of India.
   In 2010, I took a three-year break from dance classes to pursue my degree in journalism at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
  It was however not a total break from dancing. I kept my ankle bells ringing for the rest of the three years in UKM by participating in on-campus shows.
  I was always among the university's first choice for performing not only the Indian classical dance but also semi-classical and modern dances, whenever there were cultural shows. One of them was UKM's yearly charity concert, Malam Irama Penyayang.
  My passion for dance was still red-hot after university. I thus resumed my Bharathanatyam journey after graduating in 2013.
  I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to train closely under various renowned teachers of Bharatanatyam such as Anjali Poovaneswaran and Natya Rani Krishnakumari, before pursuing with Visva Laxmi Sivalingam.

BEAUTY OF BHARATHANATYAM

   "Where the hands go, the eyes should follow where the eyes go, the mind should follow, where the mind goes, the emotions are generated, where the emotions are generated, sentiment arises," this was the first lesson that I learned in Indian classical dance.
   The most beautiful part of this art was that each dance told a story and each expression, hand movement, and step carried their own unique meaning.
   The 'Adavu' or footwork plays a major role in Bharathanatyam. It is the basic steps that form a dance sequence that would involve the entire body.
   Bharathanatyam means 'bha' which stands for bhava (feelings, emotions), 'ra' stands for raga (melody), and 'ta' stands for tala (rhythm). The term Natyam is a Sanskrit word for dance.
   The gestures used in Bharatanatyam are called 'Mudras' and the symbols comprise the Asamyuta Hastas (single hand gestures) and Samyuta Hastas (two hand gestures).
  The theoretical foundations of Bharathanatyam are found in Natya Sastra, a Sanskrit Hindu text on the performing arts attributed to the sage Bharata Muni.
   It consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts.

A DEVOTEE TO DANCE

  Back in my school days, I had the misguided notion that Bharathanatyam was not that difficult.
  Experience has, of course, proven otherwise. Practice was hectic and tough.Numerous times I came home with body aches, apart from having to put up with the constant yelling and screaming by the teachers.
  More than once I had refused to attend dance classes and there were many instances when I was ready to give up learning this ancient classical dance.
  I have been teased and ridiculed by many for dancing as they had the perception that male dancers tended to be effeminate.
   However, none of the critics have succeeded in stopping my feet from dancing. Instead, they inspired me to work harder to master the dance.
  As time went on, I realised that the Bharathanatyam was not merely a dance for me. It was my passion and soul.
  Although Bharathanatyam classes can be found nationwide, it is rare to find young people who are appreciative of and involved in the traditional art.
  I thus vow to keep the art alive by sharing my experiences with the younger generation and inculcating in them the seeds of love for the dance.
 -- BERNAMA