With Love For India: Rukmini Vijayakumar, Bharatanatyam Exponent
With Love For India
A winemaker who works with kiwi farmers in her region. A communications specialist who is creating empowering, feminist rag dolls. An adventure tour specialist who believes in local experiences. An entrepreneur who envisioned and launched an app to help everyone learn Indian languages. Another who brings traditional Maharashtrian fare to dining tables across the world. Our country is replete with visionaries who are working towards empowering local communities and artisans while educating the world about their skills and crafts. Made in India, for the world. In this special issue, we applaud these women who are putting India on the world map…
“It’s beautiful to see how art crosses borders in ways that one cannot imagine”
Rukmini Vijayakumar
Bharatanatyam exponent & founder of the Raadha Kalpa Dance Company
Always surrounded by artistes and musicians, Rukmini Vijayakumar grew up to the sur of music and the taal of dance. When she was making a decision about the academic path to follow, her parents threw becoming a dancer into the mix. She went to dance school and there was no turning back. The Bharatanatyam exponent set up her dance company, and then, she says, “everything fell into place.”
The globally-renowned performer and choreographer is the founder and artistic director of the Raadha Kalpa Dance Company. Rukmini is also the pioneer of the Raadha Kalpa method, a systematic, gender-neutral pedagogy that helps a dancer train with attention to physical, technical, creative, rhythmic, theoretical and artistic detail.
Excerpts from an interview:
“With performance invitations from different people and places, I decided to showcase my talent outside of the country. Subsequently, there has been an active interest in my choreography as well. I think it’s really beautiful to see how art does, in fact, cross borders in ways that one cannot imagine. Just a few weeks ago, I performed for a completely Spanish audience. It was a Bharatnatyam sequence on Yashoda and Radha. Spanish men in the audience related to a mother figure who, as you know, was saying farewell to her son. It’s a very beautiful thing that we can make human connections through art, and I’m privileged to have the opportunity to make them.
“Both in India and abroad, Bharatanatyam has garnered a lot of popularity. Interested youngsters are learning and practising it. It’s important to ensure that school- and college-going students have an empathetic understanding of the classical Indian dance forms. At our studio, we have work-in-progress showcases at which people can get an insight into the thought and process of an art form. We are now doing that on social media as well, and it’s working because I see new audiences coming to watch performances. Artistes at large can make a concerted effort on this. I’ve seen veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh share short videos called ‘Cup O’ Carnatic’ from which people can learn about Carnatic music.
“As a representative of a classical Indian dance form, my responsibility is to constantly dig deeper into traditions. While I might choose to explore and spread my boundaries wide, I strengthen my roots, and that is what will bring out the uniqueness of this dance form worldwide.
“To aspiring Indian artistes, I would say: love the art in yourself and constantly learn. Never become complacent with the knowledge that you have; because I realise how little I know the more I learn!”
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