A connect with dance

Rhythm divine

Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life,” said Spanish artist and poet Pablo Picasso. Breaking away from the routine and finding solace in the traditional art form of bharathanatyam is Sushmitha Suresh. “Dance is the best thing that happened to me by mistake,” she says.

A graceful dancer, she was first introduced to the art form as a three year old. She was pushed to dance lessons by her mother who is also a classical dancer. “I joined the ‘Rasika Academy of Performing Arts’ when I was four years old. It has been 16 years that I have been training there and I am among the senior performers now,” she says. A dedicated dancer, she gives all the credit to her mentors — Karnataka Kalashree Kiran Subramanyam and Sandhya Kiran. A passionate artiste, she is a flawless performer and now also a dance teacher at the academy.

“I have completed just my junior exams in bharathanatyam as I do not really believe in these exams. But I have performed on various platforms and I also conduct workshops and dance lessons for the younger lot,” she says. A true believer in the art, she says that bharathanatyam is a classical art form that has an emotional touch to it.

 “One has to put one’s heart and soul to this art,” she says. She adds that the emotions expressed through this art form are intense and explains, “There was this one time where I performed to a Tamil song that told the story of a mother and a daughter. The emotions in this song were intense and it portrayed the love of a mother in a profound manner. These emotions cannot be portrayed in western art forms.” The facial expression, hand gestures, footwork, body movements, music and costume... all of them combined is what makes this art and it is this aspect that she likes about bharathanatyam.

However, she laments that this art form is dying. “People want glamour and style. It is Bollywood and other upbeat music that they want to dance to. Not many, especially the youngsters, understand this art form.” She recalls her college days where students passed hoarse comments about this South Indian dance form.

     “Students poured in in large numbers for Bollywood performances. But there was hardly anyone to witness a bharathanatyam performance,” she recollects. Having an emotional and personal connection with bharathanatyam, she wants to change the perspective of the general public towards this dance form. “There are so many technicalities in bharathanatyam that common people may not understand. The different hand gestures, expressions.... they are not easily understood. I either want to explain these gestures before the performance or I would like to simplify them while performing it to the general public,” she says.

Practising the art for over a decade now, she has performed in various platforms including the many corporate functions in Chennai and Bengaluru. But she agrees that it was not a cake walk to reach this level. “I had to balance between my passion and academics. There were times when I had to travel far off for a performance and attend exams the next day. I used to study in the train while travelling, get back to the City early in the morning and then rush to the examination hall. I have also performed with injuries — a broken wrist, injured leg...,” she explains.

But she quickly adds, “It is a choice that I made and hence it is manageable.” She enjoys both performing and teaching bharathanatyam. She wraps up saying, “People should try to understand and appreciate this dance form. They should be more respectful and encouraging.”