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Guru Smt. Rajlakshmi Venkateswara and Padma awardee K N Dandayutgapani Pillai



Karaikal Natesa Dandayudhapani Pillai 

Karaikal Natesa Dandayudhapani Pillai is considered by many as one of the leading experts of Bharatnatyam. He received Padmashri award in 1971 for his contribution in dance.He received many awards like Natyacharya, Kalaimamani, Natyakalachakravarthy.  His book is called “ Aadal Isai Amudam”. 

Details

Birth 14 July 1921

Father A.K. Natesa Pillai

Place Karaikal Puducherry, India

Death 12 October 1974

Spouse Chandra Dandayudhapani Pillai

Children Dr. Uma Anand

Brother Dhakshinamoorthhy Pillai

His Work :  He joined Kalashetra as a teacher where he taught for a number of years. He was known to authored many compositions. He was a dance choreographer in many Telegu, Tamil and Hindi films. He founded Sri Rama Nataka Niketan in Chennai in 1967.  He always said ,” I am not interested in accumulating wealth from my artistic  commitments. My mission is to leave behind a treasure trove of Knowledge that can never perish”. He was obsessed with composing Jaati with dramatic pauses Juxtaposing forward movements with diagonal placements or sides movements and warming up the tempos gradually during the pattern kept up the visual interest in his techniques. His jaaatis were unique and strenuous to train built up a fascinating synthesis of perfection and Joy.  His teermanams has the clarity and were an aural delight and created a unique joy to dance.  He soon moved out of Kalashetra and assisted Chokkkalingam Pillai for brief period before joining the vetran Kattumannarkoil Muthukumarappa Pillai for nattuvangam training. He occupies the most precious place after the Thanjavur Quartet, whose Bharatnatyam repertorire  has  stood the test of time . Each of his compositions is endowed with unique features such as the lilting lyrical content, subtle incorporation of Raaga names and conveying exquisite poetic expressions of various sentiments. The amazing Navaragamallika Varnam, which can lift the viewer to a different plane is a sample of his extra ordinary skill as a composer. He was specially known for his production of dramas. Some of the popular ones are “Chitrambala Kuravanji”, “Silpadigram” ,”Sri Andal”, “ Sivagamiyin Sabatham”, “Padmavathy Srinivaasa Kalyanam”,  “Kaveri Thanda Kalai Chelvi”,  “Kumbesar Kuravanji”. His choreography in the Hollywood film “The River” is legendary. He always seemed to be an extremely unapproachable but he was a true generous teacher who shared his knowledge with all his students.  He was a vidwan in Gitam, Vaadyam and Nrityam. The Sanskrit saying fits him perfectly “ VIDVAN Sarvatra poojyate”.

Some renowned students  who learnt under him are  Sri Vidhya, J. Jayalalithaa, Hema Rajagopalan, Suganthi Sadayane, Nayana Shenoy, Adyar K. Lakshman, Uma Muralikrishana,, Vijayalakshmi Shetty Ahuja, Jaylakshmi Alva (his first disciple) , Geeta Chandran, Vyjayantimala Bali, J. Jayalaithaa and Srividhya, Yamini Krishnamurti and Padma Subramaniyum, Usha Srinivasan, Sheila Pathy, Adyar sisters, Suria Santanam and Chitra Subramani, Urmila Satanarayanan.  VAADYAAR as he was fondly addressed  taught Waheeda Raheman, Asha Parekh, Rajasulochana, Chandrakanta, Lata and Manjula for films. He conducted Bharatnatyam recietal as Nattuvanar for Sonal Mansingh and Jayalakshimi Alva in 1960s. 



Guru Smt. Rajalakshmi Venkateswara 

Rajalakshmi was born in an orthodox bhramin family in Chennai. She lived with her father’s sister in Chennai from an early age.  Shri K N Dandayudhapani Pillai used to conduct his dance classes in her aunt’s home in the ground floor and the family lived in the first floor. She officially started learning from an early age of 5. She would be effectionately called “ Kutti Raji”.  Her Guru was extremely fond of her and whenever he conducted the class, he would call her from the upper floor and ask her to sit beside him.  Thus she learnt many items just by watching the seniors  danace. She was the only child in the class as Vadiyar would only teach senior students (above the age of 18). She did her Arangetram at the age of 8 Years. Her Guru was adamant on this . This was an extremely rare occasion as Bharatnatyam was never taught to young kids in those days. So traditional and orthodox society criticised this step. However her performance received lots of praise and every leading newspapers in Chennai wrote an article on her. In all of Vadiyar’s dance production, Kutti Raji would play the role of small Krishna, Muruga etc. One such notable mention is she played the younger version of Vyjayantimala Bali in the dance drama called “Andal”. 

Kolkata : At the age of 11 years Rajalakshmi shifted to Kolkata to live with her parents.  When she was 13 years of age, Shri K N Dandayudhapani Pillai visited the city to conduct a dance programme of Vyjayantimala Bali. It was during this time that he adviced and kind of forced Rajlakshmi to start teaching Bharatnatyam to the Tamil people who had migrated from Tamil land to Bengal. He conducted a Dance program of Rajalakshmi in National High School for Girls (located in Deshapriya Park, South Kolkata) and laid the foundation of Natya Kalalaya .  Natya Kalalaya was officially started in 1949. 

Rajalakshmi has may achievements under her belt. She imparted training of more than 1200 students both Tamil and Bengali. She conducted over 200 Arangetrams. Her students have give innumerous performances in India and abroad nad many were covered by national Media. She was both creative and innovative and created a new style of dance that was not rigid and pleasurable to watch.  Dance  was her passion. She always mentioned “ We should dance for our own inner happiness and not to please others or to win awards or to male money”. “Like music dance is a spiritual sadhana. We should forget this world and lose ourselves in our dance. Only then can we experience the true peace and bliss of dance and become one with the ULTIMATE”.


Details

Birth 16th October 1936

Father

Place Tamil Nadu

Guru Padmashri Shri K N Dandayudhapani Pillai


 Trained under the able guidance of Padmashree Guru K. N. Dandayudhapani Pillai, she came to Kolkata and made this city her home. Trained many young dancers who went on to establish there school in many different cities. Just to name the few students Smt. Sujata Venkateswaran (US), Smt. Anita Nepal ( Australia), Smt. Padmini RadhaKrishnan ( Mumbai),  Smt. Prema Nagasundaram ( Mumbai), Smt. Nirupama V Chandrashekaran (US), Smt. Bhuvna Iyar ( UK), Smt. Vijay Lakshmi Roychowdhury ( Kolkata), Smt. Geeta Venkateswara ( Mumbai), Smt. Sharmila Lakshmipathi ( UK), Smt. Esha Banerjee ( Kolkata).

 

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