More than 30 women gathered in the Harkness Ballroom on the evening of Friday, May 3, for a three-hour workshop in dance technique under the tutelage of the world-renowned Indian dancer Rukmini Vijayakumar. Celebrated as a performer in the classical Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Vijayakumar has danced as a soloist around the world, is the artistic director of a dance company, directs an artists’ space in Bangalore, India, and has won awards as an actor in the Indian film industry.
After a warmup session that included such yoga exercises as the sun salutation, Vijayakumar led the troupe in dance steps or adavus, with feet stamping on the floor, sometimes coming down heel to toe or toe to heel. Tapping a stick against a wooden block, Vijayakumar set the rhythm or tala, stepping up the pace as she moved through the lines of dancers while offering pointers and advice.
“She is going over dance technique, body movements, muscle strength, form, things like that,” said Smita Krishnaswamy, PhD, assistant professor of genetics and of computer science, who had arranged Vijayakumar’s visit. In addition to leading the Friday workshop and another Saturday morning, Vijayakumar headlined a dance recital for an audience that filled Harkness Auditorium on Saturday night. The recital was co-sponsored by the Yale Program for Humanities in Medicine and the John P. McGovern Fund for the Humanities in Medicine.
For 25 years, Krishnaswamy herself has been a dancer of Bharatanatyam, which is believed to be one of India’s oldest classical dance forms, with its basis in the ancient treatise Natya Shastra which it shares with other Indian classical dances. Typically, Bharatanatyam is solo dance, originally performed only by women who were dedicated to temple dieties and performed in religious ceremonies. It flourished mainly in South India. After her third child was born, Krishnaswamy renewed her interest in Bharatanatyam and began looking for other Indian dancers in New Haven.
“I discovered there wasn’t much of a dance community here, aside from a small group of Yale College students who performed in undergraduate shows once or twice a year,” said Krishnaswamy, who has performed in Michigan, New York, Connecticut, and India. “A lot of women, especially in my department, expressed an interest that they wanted to learn it from scratch. I thought I would create something where people would learn, practice, and perform, and create a community.”
I thought I would create something where people would learn, practice, and perform, and create a community.
Smita Krishnaswamy
Last fall she organized a dance troupe, Natya Mandala, largely drawn from Yale School of Medicine. The students, faculty, lab technicians, and others—there are eight to 10 regular members—range from rank beginners to intermediate and advanced dancers—but have come together so well that they already have performed twice.
Krishnaswamy had long been in touch with Vijayakumar about holding workshops and performing at Yale, but until she formed Natya Mandala, she didn’t feel the timing was right. “I didn’t have a network in place,” she said. “After I started my dance group and we did start performing, then I did.”
On Saturday night, Vijayakumar’s highlight piece was Talattu, a dance that explores the love of two women—his mother and lover—for the Hindu deity Krishna, as they deal with his impending departure. With intricate and nimble footwork, graceful motions of her arms and body, and occasional pantomime, Vijayakumar expressed their joys and sorrows.
The evening’s performers also included Natya Mandala and others from the Yale community, as well as a dance troupe from New Jersey. Krishnaswamy performed a solo piece, Mohana Raga Thillana. The dances celebrated Shiva, a principal deity of Hinduism; Ganesha, one of the most worshipped of Hindu deities, an elephant-headed god who is the remover of obstacles; as well as Krishna, the Hindu god of compassion, tenderness, and love.