JOIN US'Dance is the pursuit of the new'
Danseuse Yamini Krishnamurthy is well over 70 years and still gives more than five performances a month, besides training a host of young girls in her dance school. The spirit, determination and commitment to dance, believes Yamini, is what has kept her in good stead thus far.
Get her talking about classical dance and she can go on for hours together and never tires of reiterating that only creativity will help a dancer grow and flourish. “Dance is a very demanding career and unless the dancer spends a good amount of time researching and creating something new from the old, he or she will not enjoy the process of rediscovery. Dance is the pursuit of the new and the unknown,” Yamini tells Metrolife.
Yamini has worked around the works of famous poets and transformed the same into music, that is suited for classical dance renditions. “Classical dance is very contemporary. A dancer can always work and explore within the classical framework. I am working on converting a selection of Tagore’s drama into dance,” says Yamini, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001.
Looks like Yamini is wedded to dance, for she didn’t think at all about marriage. “Looking back, I never thought about marriage. I was engaged doing so many things that the thought of marriage never really bothered me. There’s still so much to be done in classical dance,” she says and adds, “dance is an art and a god given gift, I don’t want to throw it away just like that.”
Yamini visits the City quite often to spend time with a bunch of close friends and conduct workshops for young dancers. “I am glad that tradition still holds the interest of a few youngsters,” feels Yamini. But mention ‘fusion’ and she doesn’t seem to be pleased at all. “That’s just entertainment. I’d rather not talk about it at all. You can’t really blame the young people for attempting fusion, it’s inevitable,” she sums up.