No. 10, Sri Labdi Colony in Chennai is bustling with exercise as preparations are on for the celebration of Samanvay – 50 years of the Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA). It’s the elegant dwelling of Bharatanatyam exponent, guru and humanities administrator Chitra Visweswaran, who steps into her seventy fifth yr on October 12. It additionally doubles up because the inventive house for CAPA.
Just like the well-known feminine trinity in Carnatic music, the names of veteran dancers Padma Subrahmanyam, Sudharani Raghupathy and Chitra Visweswaran come to thoughts within the area of natyam.
Chitra says, “Ever since I can bear in mind, dance has been an intrinsic a part of my existence”. She was initiated into dance on the age of three, by her mom Rukmani Padmanabhan, after which put by means of her paces in Western classical ballet in London. An eclectic background overlaying Manipuri, Kathak, Rabindra nritya and sangeet, Carnatic music and theatre, propelled Chitra on a creative voyage of discovery at a younger age in Kolkata. On the age of 10, she got here underneath the tutelage of Tiruvidaimarudur T.A. Rajalakshmi and had her arangetram on April 12, 1962.
Superior coaching
In 1970, after graduating in English Honours from Calcutta College, Chitra acquired the Nationwide Scholarship for superior research in Bharatanatyam from the Authorities of India. She subsequently relocated to Madras and spent 4 years studying from the doyen Vazhuvoor Ramaiyya Pillai. “If T.A. Rajalakshmi laid a powerful basis of grammar and method, Vazhuvoorar woke up me to unimaginable, heights of creativity. His educating strategies have been very unorthodox. An ideal visionary, vadyar by no means considered or taught Bharatanatyam at a mere bodily degree. He used analogies and woke up one to hunt inspiration from Nature and life. ‘Suppose, suppose!’ he would say. To at the present time I observe his strategy whereas educating. At CAPA, it’s my endeavour to assist my college students develop the seeing eye, the listening to ear and the considering thoughts as nicely.”
The scholarship interval had ended and Ramaiyya Pillai was unable to journey to conduct Chitra’s live shows. On a somber be aware she remembers: “After a lot emotional trauma on each side, he lastly agreed to permit me to work independently, however circumstances prevented him from in accordance permission for anybody else to carry out nattuvangam for the items he had taught me. These days there have been hardly any freelance nattuvanars. So there I used to be, out on a limbo, with barely a month to go earlier than my subsequent efficiency. With this, a brand new chapter in my life started. I labored on contemporary margams and extension of repertoire. And given my background, I set out on a voyage of discovery, to widen my horizons in my chosen area.”
With coaching in myriad dance genres, Chitra Visweswaran developed an individualistic philosophy of motion.
| Photograph Credit score:
VEDHAN M
Quickly, Chitra chartered her personal course combining all that she had imbibed from her gurus and her data of the cognate types of arts, imbuing them with a scholastic strategy and creating an individualistic philosophy of motion. She was among the many first to tour extensively overseas, and within the course of geared up herself and her college students in nattuvangam, acoustics and lighting design in knowledgeable means.
Her husband, R. Visweswaran, gave up a company profession to completely contain himself in music. Along with his data of the Carnatic and Hindustani techniques as additionally Western classical, he began singing and composing music for her dance. Collectively they created a number of solo items, thematic shows and group productions. Her model stands out for its verve, mild leaps, flowing actions punctuated by pulsating pauses, quicksilver head and eye actions, play of rhythm and cross rhythms, mimimalistic but elegant jewelry and costumes, and clever protection of house, delicate but communicative abhinaya — all conveying the enjoyment of dance.
Launching dance class in Chennai
Chitra Visweswaran’s ‘Skaandam’ carried out by her college students at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, T. Nagar on December 28, 2022.
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VEDHAN M
Fifty years in the past, two years after her marriage to the multi-talented R. Visweswaran, the thought of beginning dance courses in Chennai had taken form in August 1974, with the assist of her mother and father. Chitra launched her dance courses in an off-the-cuff means within the drawing room of her home which too has developed over time alongside along with her profitable and fulfilling profession in classical dance. Each time the furnishings within the room could be cleared for the seven or eight youngsters who attended the courses. Inside a yr, the house for dance was formalised aptly because the Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts.
One of many earlier performances by Chitra Visweswaran at Bonn in 1981.
| Photograph Credit score:
The Hindu Archives
Chitra was a well-liked and busy artiste presenting as many as 20 performances a month in India and overseas, however educating was her ardour and she or he intelligently divided her time between dancing and educating. Because the variety of college students grew, the dance class received promoted from the drawing room to a extra spacious and handy dance corridor on the primary ground. Now, on the event of its golden jubilee, lectures are additionally being organised within the ‘Terracotta Terrace’ aesthetically designed atop the home — appropriate for chamber live shows.
Dancer Chitra Visweswaran and her college students at CAPA, who will presenting Samanvay in Chennai.
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RAVINDRAN R
Because the establishment enters its fiftieth yr, CAPA is curating a collection referred to as Samanvay. “I’ve all the time perceived artwork as an entire entire. It’s this Samanvay that I’ve chosen to ascertain by means of this competition, bringing various experiences by means of totally different genres. On this joyous competition of natyam, sangeetam, the spoken phrase, poetry and puppetry, exemplary artistes are coming collectively to deliver us this expertise of togetherness,” explains Chitra.
Sukanya Ravindhar, director, Chidambaram Dance Firm and a senior disciple of Chitra, who has been conducting the rehearsals, chips in saying, “We really feel a deep sense of delight in persevering with to share the artistry imparted by our guru. Samanvay brings collectively the wealthy influences that outline our legacy.”
Some milestones
Chitra Visweswaran first composed a dance piece on the age of 11, and choreographed the lifetime of saint Tyagaraja as a varnam when she was 13.
As an adolescent, she launched the idea of bulletins on stage throughout her performances in Kolkata within the Sixties.
She was among the many first dance academics to coach her college students to do nattuvangam.
Having skilled in lighting and lighting design underneath the legendary Tapas Sen in Kolkata, whilst an adolescent Chitra included the idea of utilizing lighting as an integral a part of choreography.
Samanvay – artwork confluence
‘Samanvay – a confluence’ will function Dushyanth Sridhar, Anupama Hoskere, Sikkil Gurucharan and Anil Srinivasan, and the Chidambaram Dance Firm, on September 28 and 29, at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai.
The occasion is held in partnership with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra, The Ministry of Tradition, and Shreya Nagarajan Singh Arts Growth Consultancy.
Printed – September 27, 2024 10:17 am IST
