Bharatha Natyam:

A bridge between two communities

Subashini Pathmanathan is one of the leading Bharatha Natyam exponents, an excellent guru, and a writer with a unique identity.

She started dancing at the age of two and a half when her mother enrolled baby Subashini to a dance class.

Subashini Pathmanathan

"I started learning dancing before I started my schooling. I started my initial training in Bharatha Natyam, under Smt. Thripurasunthari Yoganatham in Jaffna," she said.

Pathmanathan was born in Jaffna and did her basic schooling at one of the town's leading schools - Chundukuli Girl's College, she persuaded her studies at the Government College for Women Chandigarh, North India, and was graduated.

Having completed her post graduation at Punjab University, she returned to Sri Lanka to do law, her 'family profession'.

"My father's family of three generations were lawyers, they all practised in Anurathapura. My father was an advocate at Anurathapura. After the ethnic violence in 1977, he was compelled to start his practice in Jaffna, where he built up his profession steadily, but due to the unavoided circumstances, and the total law and order failure in Jaffna in 1987, he shifted to Colombo permanently," she recalled.

"My father wanted me to be a lawyer, but the country situation forced me to abandon the idea. I am the forth in the family of six children. My mother wanted me to be dancer and I learnt dancing under one of the world renowned Bharatha Natyam dance gurus Padmashree Vazhuvoor Ramiahpillai of Chennai, and completed a diploma from Vazhuvoor Classical Bharatha Natya Centre, Chennai, and again I completed a diploma course and a post graduation degree in Bharatha Natyam from Bharathidasan University Thiruchirappalli. I have dedicated my whole life to this art, and I am a performing artiste," she said.

Pathmanathan has written numerous articles about dance, and related topics, and I have authored several research books on dance.

"I contributed a lot of programmes for meritorious purposes in Sri Lanka and abroad. My mother is the guru and guide for my artistic career, and my father for my writing career. He passed away recently and I lost a very precious gem in my life," she lamented.

Expressing her views on the Bharatha Natyam dance talents in Sri Lanka, Pathmanathan said most of the talented artistes have less scope to come up in life.

"Here more than the talent, influence is needed to come up in life. People are very much interested in classical dances, but present generation students have lack of dedication," she noted.

What do you think about the art today, mainly the differences between the present and the past generation?

Earlier, those who were interested in dance only learnt under proper teachers. They took lot of pain and mastered the art practically, without expecting any paper qualifications. Earlier, the number of teachers were also less, their mentality was praiseworthy. But today, numerous institutions and so many commercialized teachers are in this field seeking cheap publicity, and this art has become a money making profession. True, it has become a highly competitive profession. Most of the dance teachers do not maintain standards except for a few. Most of them are running behind fake titles, awards, and rewards. Even the students in the metropolitan area learn the art with different intentions. Some with real interest and devotion; some only for the sake of learning, some only for the time being, some for exercise purposes, some for fashion, and still some just because of the pressure of their parents. Some students are not at all interested in the performances, but they are only interested in collecting certificates, or to perform in cheap television shows.

What was the earlier training methodology and the present teaching methodology?

Earlier, traditional gurus were the main gurus and they maintained the Gurukula tradition, (staying at the guru's place and serving them, and learning the art); the gurus imparted to the students in a very vigorous manner, they never imparted the art from an examination point of view, or for certificates. The students gain all sorts of discipline which is very much needed for the life.

The gurus wanted the students to master the art perfectly with devotion.

Nowadays science and technology is widely developed, and these techniques are well adopted in the teaching methodologies.

But at the same time the social setup is totally different; the students are involved in numerous extracurricular activities and they are not regular to the classes, even for two hours per week. Most of the students live in apartments where they have limited scope to practise. Maintaining the standard is really hard for a dedicated teacher. The students end their dancing careers with glamorous Arengetram. The parents prefer to have an Arengetram by giving a wide range of publicity, by inviting hall full of invitees, and decorating the hall with paintings and cutouts, and in the middle of the Arengetram it turns out to be a cocktail party by serving short eats and drinks in packets to make it an entertainment without considering the standard of the art. Due to such cheap approaches adopted by affluent parents, poor and the middle class parents and children feel that Arengetram is a dream for them, out of their reach.

Such type of lavish Arangetrams never happened in the past, only quality and standards were considered that cherishes the art for its long survival.

What do you think about the different styles in Bharatha Natyam?

Bharatha Natyam is always one, styles only reflect in Adavus (steps).

Adavus are common in all the dance forms, but in Bharatha Natyam the way of execution of methodology of adavus is the chief cause for the style differences.

These slight variations are mainly due to different approaches of different teachers, stationed in different areas.

Bharatha Natyam is a Hindu, and Tamil art. How do you feel that other communities in this country appreciate this art form?

Sinhalese students are my maximum number of students; they learn this art with great enthusiasm and interest. This art serves as a bridge between the two major communities.

But due to the language, and religious differences they cannot master beyond a particular level.

Unfortunately in Sri Lanka the southern universities never want to enroll Tamil Hindu teachers to teach Bharatha Natyam in these universities and engage non Tamil and non Hindu teachers to teach Bharatha Natyam. Ultimately, it will affect the dance form at the university level.