Rashmi Gopi Hegde, an accomplished dancer, has created a cultural escape amidst the dust and noise of Kanakapura Road in Bangalore. Her ambition is to digitally archive dance-based research. Sumana Bharadwaj meets the gracious danseuse.
Amidst the dust, noise, and the numerous disorderly shops on Kanakapura Road, lies the gateway to the world of arts, Shankara, (bronze letters in Kannada set on wood) almost hidden. Shankara is a cultural sanctum created in memory of B T Shankar Hegde.
‘Shankara extends patronage to the arts, progressively fulfilling its mission wherein creativity and finer expressions thrive' reads a sign as you step in through the gates. As you walk further, you slowly begin to grasp the full purport of the saying. It is a sanctum indeed!
A divine feeling engulfs you, transporting you to a different world altogether with its sprawling greenscape, dotted with contemporary and timeless sculptures, tribal murals in rustic settings and the air filled with the calming sounds of nature in total contrast to the chaotic world just outside the gates; every inch of Shankara is an expression of art in itself.
Welcome to Shankara, (and mind you, it is not to be confused with Rangashankara in JP Nagar!) the brainchild of classical dancer Rashmi Hegde Gopi, who envisioned Shankara as a bridge between artists and art lovers and a tribute to all forms of creative expression. Drawing inspiration from the patronage extended to arts by her visionary industrialist father, Sri Shankar Hegde, Rashmi founded the Shankara Arts Foundation and named it after him.
Rashmi Hegde Gopi, Rajyotsava Award recipient, is a renowned dancer who has won acclaim around the world through decades. She began training at a tender age of three, under the illustrious Gurus, Muthaiah Pillai and Kittappa Pillai of the Pandanallur School of Bharatanatyam. She has also learnt Mohiniattam from eminent teachers at Kerala Kalamandalam.
Rashmi has several dance ballets to her credit. Her choreography was the piece-de-resistance at the National Games of 1997 because of the dramatic manner in which she used five hundred tribal Yakshagana Kodava dancers. Rashmi choreographed dancers from all over the world for the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Art of Living.
Birth of Shankara
For someone so passionate about arts and so full of enthusiasm for life, these personal accomplishments were not sufficient, it only fuelled Rashmi's thirst to dream the extraordinary, to do something more for the arts, 'something that she could leave behind' as Rashmi says. Her dreams took concrete shape in the form of Rudraksha, her first project, to 'showcase' India in a nutshell.
The programmes held here gave a glimpse of India, encapsulating beautiful, ancient and rustic India before audiences. Once Rudraksha was running successfully, the multi-faceted dancer, ever brimming with creative energy and initiative, again dreamed of doing more for her passion that was the arts.
It had always pained Rashmi greatly to see the traditional arts and crafts dying a gradual death under the hands of middlemen and crass commercialisation. And with death of the traditional arts meant loss of livelihood for the artisans and a future generation, that grew up, completely unaware of their rich heritage. This burning desire to protect, preserve and perpetuate traditional arts and crafts had her dreaming about a cultural haven, which would act as a bridge between art lovers and the artists.
Rashmi laid the foundation for Shankara with the support of select artists, social workers, industrialists and academicians where she combined philanthropy with art. Thus was born Shankara in 2000, the cultural haven, under the able leadership of Rashmi.
Shankara has many arms through which it efficiently executes its various programmes, each of which has a broader social conscience. Among them are Hastanjali, a wing of Shankara created to provide a much-needed platform for the dying and endangered traditional crafts of India.
Poorvaranga, the academy for traditional arts, is a venture to promote, preserve and perpetuate art traditions through extensive research and workshops. It highlights contributions of veteran performing artists while at the same time encourages upcoming artists.
Apart from this, it has set up a museum with a collection of priceless objects d'art in the form of costumes, jewellery, accessories, bio-profiles, photographs, with plans to add memorabilia from renowned artists and organisations.
Artitude, an art enterprise, is geared towards promoting all dimensions of Indian art with a multi pronged approach. Ranga gucca, yet another unique wing of shankara, is mainly for children, both rural and urban. Workshops, camps, short-term courses are organised in performing arts, theatre, puppetry, painting, music, handicrafts to sensitive children to their cultural roots.
The future
Today Shankara is more than just a dream. It is an attempt to pass on a priceless repository of cultural pride to our youth. Kala-Kosha, a digital archive is already well underway to strengthen Shankara's research undertakings.
Extending genuine patronage to the arts, Shankara truly has become a place of higher perception, to look inwards for enlightenment and awakening of the finer senses of our being as symbolised by its logo, the third eye. And Rashmi at the helm has kept the cultural flag flying high!
