Rukmini Devi Arundale sought after to turn out to be the way in which other people checked out Bharatnatyam, a dance shape which was once as soon as carried out best by way of devadasis. She and her husband established a dance and song academy referred to as Kalakshetra at Adyar close to Chennai to inspire others to be told such artwork bureaucracy.
Do you know that Rukmini Devi Arundale, the mythical Bharatnatyam dancer, was once as soon as presented the chance to change into the president of India?
As surprising as it will sound, the dancer humbly refused with the intention to pursue her pastime for dance. Here’s her tale.
Born on 29 February, 1904, right into a Brahmin circle of relatives in Madurai, Rukmini was once one in every of 8 youngsters of Nilakanta Sastri and Seshammal. On the age of 16, she fell in love with an educator, theosophist, and Annie Besant’s depended on lieutenant, George Arundale, whom she married in 1920.
The couple travelled internationally, and on one in every of her travels on a boat to Australia, she met with mythical ballerina Anna Pavlova. It was once at Pavlova’s request that she started studying ballet. Pavlova had additionally prompt Rukmini to inspire the dancer inside of her by way of looking for inspiration in classical Indian dance bureaucracy.
This led Rukmini on a trail of studying, training and selling Bharatnatyam — an artwork shape which was once best carried out by way of devadasis (girls ritually “devoted” to the provider of a temple for the remainder of their lives) again then.
In January 1936, Rukmini and her husband established an academy of dance and song referred to as Kalakshetra at Adyar close to Chennai. In accordance with the rules of the traditional Indian Gurukul machine, they integrated a highschool, a senior secondary college, and an artwork academy the place song and dance have been steadily taught beneath sprawling timber.
Within the following a long time, she additionally began to accomplish the dance publicly to cut back the taboo round it. She went directly to change into one in every of India’s maximum celebrated dancers and the primary revivalist of Indian classical bureaucracy. In 1956, she was once awarded the Padma Bhushan and in 1967, she won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.
Edited by way of Pranita Bhat