As Chitra Visweswaran’s dance academy completes 50 years, the Bharatanatyam exponent traces her transition from a performer to a guru

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 12 months on October 12. It additionally doubles up because the creative 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 discipline of natyam.

Chitra says, “Ever since I can keep 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 protecting 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 beneath 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 robust basis of grammar and approach, Vazhuvoorar woke up me to unimaginable, heights of creativity. His educating strategies have been very unorthodox. An excellent 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. ‘Assume, assume!’ he would say. To today I observe his method 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 concert events. On a somber be aware she recollects: “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 discipline.”

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 information of the cognate types of arts, imbuing them with a scholastic method and growing 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 manner.

Her husband, R. Visweswaran, gave up a company profession to completely contain himself in music. Along with his information of the Carnatic and Hindustani programs 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 fashion stands out for its verve, gentle 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.
| Photograph Credit score:
VEDHAN M

Fifty years in the past, two years after her marriage to the multi-talented R. Visweswaran, the thought of beginning dance lessons in Chennai had taken form in August 1974, with the help of her dad and mom. Chitra launched her dance lessons in an off-the-cuff manner 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 can be cleared for the seven or eight youngsters who attended the lessons. Inside a 12 months, 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 bought promoted from the drawing room to a extra spacious and handy dance corridor on the primary flooring. 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 concert events.

Dancer Chitra Visweswaran and her college students at CAPA, who will presenting Samanvay in Chennai.
| Photograph Credit score:
RAVINDRAN R

Because the establishment enters its fiftieth 12 months, CAPA is curating a collection known as Samanvay. “I’ve at all times perceived artwork as an entire entire. It’s this Samanvay that I’ve chosen to ascertain by means of this pageant, bringing various experiences by means of completely different genres. On this joyous pageant of natyam, sangeetam, the spoken phrase, poetry and puppetry, exemplary artistes are coming collectively to convey 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 a teen, she launched the idea of bulletins on stage throughout her performances in Kolkata within the Sixties.

She was among the many first dance lecturers to coach her college students to do nattuvangam.

Having educated in lighting and lighting design beneath the legendary Tapas Sen in Kolkata, at the same time as a teen Chitra integrated the idea of utilizing lighting as an integral a part of choreography.

Samanvay – artwork confluence

‘Samanvay – a confluence’ will characteristic 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.