Here, dance empowers children

“Thayyum thathath thayyum thaha…” arms stretched out, students in the dance class are stamping their feet on the floor trying to match up to the rhythm and follow the adavus which their Bharatanatyam teacher Padmaja Suresh is executing with seemingly effortless ease. One girl giggles as she catches us aiming the camera at her, another looks down shyly and a bolder one lifts her chin and offers a fine pose.

After the class, 13-year-old Anusha brings us her notebook and opens the page to the list of asamyukhta hasthas and samyuktha hasthas she has neatly jotted down. Shwetha and Munirathana, around the same age, join her.

It might seem like a usual scene–after all, so many streets in south India resound with the jingle of anklets from dance classes. However, this one is different. The location is a bare, dimly-lit room in a small, rundown government school at Arokhyathanahalli, Makali.

Anusha and the others are children of largely-uneducated, small-time farmers living in backward areas. Dance fees? Rs 10 to 20 per month. Or nothing where even this is unaffordable.

Enabling all this is dance school Aatmalaya’s charitable wing Kalachaitanya. This wing, Kalachaitanya, was set up to teach classical dance and music to underprivileged children by Bangalore-based Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher and choreographer Padmaja in 2004. It has reached out to over a thousand children over the years. “Most dance students, boys and girls, are studying in government and corporation schools of Bangalore. We used to teach them in the school premises,” explains Padmaja.

Once a school’s management has given Padmaja (aka Padmaja Venkatesh) the permission to hold classes after talks with her, they make an announcement that Bharatanatyam classes will be held. Interested children then enroll for the same. Incidentally, Aatmalaya was formerly known as Kalpatharu Kalavihar.

A boon for the underprivileged

Arguably, classical dance is a fairly expensive art to learn in these days, especially if you want to reach the stage of performing. So, by reaching out with free or near-free classes, Kalachaitanya has made the dreams of many a dance -loving child from underprivileged families come true.

There are other benefits. As Chandrika and Lalithamma, mothers of two Aroygathanahalli students reveal, “The biggest benefits are that they become more disciplined and responsible. These qualities help greatly in their education and personal life.”

Besides, the students acquire an aesthetic component to their education. This additional proficiency in an art form also gives a new and exciting dimension to their lives. For children hailing from families where economic self-sufficiency itself is a struggle, to receive training in classical dance is a boon.

A few parents tell us, “We too loved music and dance as children. But we could not even dream of learning it. Sending us to school itself was a big challenge for our parents who were struggling to give us the bare necessity of three meals a day.”

Also, as the children excitedly tell us, they receive opportunities to perform in school and rural cultural events, given this dance background.

For them as well as their parents, such events are a dream come true. Padmaja adds, “I also ensure that Kalachaitanya students get a slot in every Aatmalaya production.”

She has even got underprivileged students, as part of a larger group of her disciples, to perform in Rashtrapathi Bhavan for former president APJ Abdul Kalam and in Bangalore for the Karnataka Governor.

Finally, Kalachaitanya’s dance training offers a respectable livelihood option, especially beneficial, considering very few children are likely to receive higher education. Some students have already made up their mind to become professional dancers and dance teachers!

For Padmaja, this is the fulfillment of a dream she had harboured for years. She herself was privileged to learn dance from age four under several good teachers including the renowned K Kalyanasundaram. “Travelling in Mumbai’s local trains as a college goer, I would see, as all commuters do, children singing and dancing for alms. Some of these child beggars had such melodious voices and their sense of rhythm (as they used rudimentary cymbals and even pebbles) was so impressive that it touched me and set me thinking, “If only these kids had the benefit of good dance and music teachers, they would blossom into fine artistes. I resolved to do something though exactly what and when I was not sure.”

How it all started...

Years later, after marriage, children and a flourishing dance career, the opportunity arrived. A coconut vendor outside her home brought his child to Padmaja and asked her if she could teach the girl. Padmaja agreed.

The experience was so gratifying, she decided to do it on a fuller scale. So, she set up Kalachaitanya as a project in 2004. Padmaja has received marginal support from philanthropic individuals over the years though she mostly manages with her own resources.

Of course, there are challenges. Not all parents are cooperative. Under parental pressure, some girls drop out of dance classes once they reach puberty.

There are other elders who want to withdraw their children from dance so they can help as flower-sellers, newspaper boys, or at other odd jobs, and contribute to family earnings.

Padmaja has had to face some very unreasonable parents. One father came to her home in an inebriated state and demanded to know why his child should be learning dance when he could be spending the time more fruitfully in a part-time job and bringing home some money.

However, for Padmaja, the satisfaction of imparting a beautiful classical art to so many children and making a positive difference to their lives outweighs these problems.

For every unreasonable parent, there is a score of grateful mothers and fathers and enthusiastic children. And that is what keeps Kalachaitanya and Padmaja going.