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The day marked the culmination of a year-long
celebration flagged off by Vice President Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat, who announced music and dance programmes in Rukmini
Devi's memory in all major cities of India and countries like
Vietnam and the US.
The morning began at Kalakshetra, the dance
and music institution she set up here, with a prayer meeting and
a singing procession that ended under a banyan tree at the
Theosophical Society.
"The tree symbolises Rukmini Devi's strength
and deep-rooted interest in India's cultural heritage," said one
of her students.
The prayers were led by Rukmini Devi's
students and associates like Pasupati and Adyar K. Lakshmana,
now famous musicians themselves.
Her students, now noted dancers like Sarada
Hoffman, Ambika Buch, Adyar K. Rama Rao, Mythili Raghavan,
Pushpa Shankar, have gathered here for the daylong homage being
organised in the premises of Kalakshetra.
"Art is life," Rukmini Devi believed.
Says Ambika Buch: "Atthai made us feel joy in
beauty and creativity and in remembering her we want to transmit
that joy."
After the prayer meet there was a music
session by noted artistes of rare compositions and ragas sung
during Rukmini Devi's time.
Daylong lectures on Rukmini Devi's life and
times were held. Her personal collections and books on her were
on display at Kalakshetra.
Rukmini Devi's own dance compositions were
also rendered.
While young performed 'alarippu' and 'jatiswaram',
veterans like V.P. Dhanajayan, C.V. Chandrasekar also took to
the stage in memory of the woman who never failed to encourage
more people to take to dance.
Rukmini Devi was born to a family of
theosophists in 1904. She was married at 16 to British
theosophist George Arundale, who was then 40.
Her marriage opened up the world of art and
culture to the young Rukmini Devi. She decided to learn
Bharatanatyam in her early 20s, raising a storm.
In those days, dancing was not something the
conservative upper classes of Chennai approved of.
She learnt from teachers like Mylapore Gowri
Amma and Chokalingam Pilai.
Instead of giving her first public
performance or 'arangetram' at the music academy or to a
professional audience in Mylapore, she danced under the star-lit
skies of the Theosophical Society.
The young Rukmini Devi also plunged into
education reform and helped pioneers like Maria Montessori in
establishing her first schools in Tamil Nadu - "schools without
fear", as they were called.
In 1936, the institution now called
Kalakshetra was carved out of the Theosophical Society's vast
grounds. This became Rukmini Devi's home and work place until
her death.
Kalakshetra soon attracted several
Bharatanatyam dancers, teachers and students and was home to
noted musicians like Tiger Vardhachari, Budalur Krishnamurthy
Sastri and Papanasam Sivan and many others.
Rukmini Devi herself choreographed dances
like "Ramayanam" and "Kumarasambhavam". The programmes were
different and refreshing and, as she would say, "something that
will interest young dancers".
She was also a pioneer of animal rights and
as a member of the Rajya Sabha helped steer through India's
first prevention of cruelty to animals bill.
At one point of time, she was widely
considered as a presidential candidate.
- SriRaman |
