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With a passion for dancing
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It is dedication that has helped Kalakshetra Vilasini carve a niche for herself in Bharatanatyam. Practice makes perfection, she says in a conversation with Shyama Rajagopal.
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Dancing for 50 years, Kalakshetra Vilasini is compelling as ever. The advancing years have not downed her passion for dancing. In fact, it has been maturing day by day, making her one of the most respected figures in the school of Bharatanatyam.
She is strict with her discipline. One has to be, she says. "One cannot learn art if one is not determined and do not practice''. There are quite a few people with talent, but it has to be nurtured carefully, she adds.
"I do not encourage people to join the classes with an eye for competitions'', says Vilasini teacher, as she is popularly known. "It has to be the love for art. One does not learn anything if one prepares anything with an eye on winning awards. In fact, I allow my students `arangettam' only after continuous learning for three years. This is for a talented person. Others may require more years before stepping on stage," she says.
Starting at the age of nine, Ms. Vilasini gave the first stage performance in 1952 when she was just 13 along with her sister, Vasantha, at the Madurai OCPM High School Hall, where they were studying. It was her father who wanted his girls to learn dance, though he did not realise the potential of his daughter until her Guru Pazhaniswamy in Coimbatore (where they were stationed earlier) wrote a letter to her father asking him not to stop the girls from learning dance.
In fact, Vilasini teacher, along with her sister on stage and another elder sister on the mike soon started composing and performing dances in Bharatanatyam style.
Coming to Thiruvananthapuram, the sisters gave impressive dance performances on different stages. "I had not done very well with my academics and was thinking of not going further with it. It was at this time my teacher suggested that I go or an interview for a dance teacher.''
Getting selected from as many as 172 entrants was an award in itself for Ms. Vilasini. After intensive training at Kalakshetra from 1958 to 1962, she came back to join as Bharatanatyam teacher at the RLV College for Music and Dance, Tripunithura, from where she retired as the head of department.
It was not just a job for her. Over the years, she has composed over 90 works. She won the State Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award in 1995 and founded the Nrityashree in 1971.
"Increase in the number of competitions is actually spoiling the art. One is subject to an overdose these days," says Vilasini teacher.
"We used to be thorough with the steps before starting to learn a dance composition, but nowadays, students want to learn an item without knowing the basics''.
All these years have been a great success for her because of total support from the family, she says. The teacher never thought that she would be able to continue dancing after marriage. But it was not so.
"In fact, after my husband's (P.S. Muraleedharan Nair) retirement from the Marketing Federation, he took full charge of my dance school. He knows the theory so well that he prepares all the notices required for any performances.
Ms. Vilasini still goes to Thiruvananthapuram twice a week to teach Bharatanatyam at the Sri Chithira Thirunal Smaraka Nrithyasangeetha Patana Kendram and at Noopura.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
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