Kalanidhi Narayanan (7 December 1928 – 21 February 2016) was an Indian dancer and teacher of Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, who was the early non-devadasi girl to learn the dance form and perform it on stage in the 1930s and 1940s. After a brief career in the 1940s, she returned to dance in 1973 and became a notable teacher of abhinaya.
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27/11/2019
Kalanidhi Narayanan - Indian classical dancer, dance teacher
========================================================================1. Profile :
7 December 1928
Tamil Nadu, India
Died 21 February 2016 (aged 87)
Chennai, India
Occupation Indian classical dancer, dance teacher
Years active 1940-1944; 1973-2016
Current group Madras Music Academy
Dances Bharatnatyam
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2. Introduction :
Kalanidhi Narayanan (7 December 1928 – 21 February 2016) was an Indian dancer and teacher of Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, who was the early non-devadasi girl to learn the dance form and perform it on stage in the 1930s and 1940s. After a brief career in the 1940s, she returned to dance in 1973 and became a notable teacher of abhinaya.
She was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award, India's third highest civilian honour in 1985, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Bharatnatyam in 1990, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama and Kalidas Samman (1998). She was also conferred Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna for Dance in 2011.
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3. Early life and training :
Born Kalanidhi Ganapathi in the Brahmin household of Sumitra and Ganapati, her mother was keen on getting her dance education, and this was supported by her father. Thus starting at the age of seven she trained intensively under various gurus, this included Kamakshi Ammal, daughter of Veena Dhanam, for Padams and Javalis and Manakkal Sivarajan for vocal lessons. Noted guru Kannappa Pillai, from Kanchipuram was her main teacher of nritta (dance), he was also teacher to Balasaraswati, while Chinnayya Naidu and Mylapore Gauri Ammal taught her Abhinaya (Art of expression). Later was to add a new dimension to abhinaya herself.
She made her stage-debut (Arangetram) at the age of 12 at the Senate House in Chennai, for the Madras Music Academy. While still in her teens, she gave to two notable recitals, one with Dhanamanikkam and another with Nattuvanar K. Ganesan, son of the Kandappa Pillai.
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4. Career :
In 7 December 2003, various dance teachers and her disciples, celebrated her 75th birthday at Luz Community Hall in Chennai, it was marked by a two-day seminar on abhinaya, where in prominent gurus of Bharatanatyam participated. On the occasion, a set of 4 CDs on Padamswas also released.
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5. Disciples :
#Meenakshi Chitharanjan (abhinaya)
Amongst her noted disciples are, A.Lakshmanaswamy (India), Bragha Basel (India), Subashree Narayanan (USA), Minal Prabhu (India), Priya Govind (India), Sharmila Biswas, Meenakshi Chitharanjan (abhinaya), Milana Severskaya (Russia) to name a few. She has taught numerous disciples over the years, many of whom have personalised her philosophies.
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6. Death :
She died in February 2016.
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Kalanidhi Narayanan became synonymous with the modern technique of 'teaching Abhinayam'. - Veejay Sai - Saturday, February 27, 2016.
7. A tribute to Kalaninidhi Narayanan, one of the first modern gurus of 'Abhinayam'
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1.
Till about a decade ago, if you asked any Bharatanatyam dancer in Chennai who was their Guru in Abhinayam or mimetic dance, Kalanidhi Narayanan’s name would inevitably pop up eight out of ten times. She became synonymous with the modern technique of ‘teaching Abhinayam’. Since the 1970’s Kalanidhi Narayanan, fondly addressed as Kalanidhi Maami by her students and everyone in the dance world, grew steadily to be the most sought after teacher of a rather difficult art form of Abhinayam. In that sense, she was among the first of the modern Gurus of the dance form. Last week the world of Bharatanatyam lost Kalanidhi Narayanan.The mainstream media, too busy with politics and other things didn’t bother to acknowledge her demise.
#A young Kalanidhi
2.Kalanidhi was born on December 7, 1928, to Sumitra and S V Ganapathy, a Brahmin couple. It was her mother’s interest in the art form that lead her to learn dance. Her mother had seen the renaissance era of the 30’s and 40’s. They were keen that their daughter had to learn dance and found support from E Krishna Iyer. When Kalanidhi was seven years old, they took her to Mylapore Gowri Ammal, the last of the Devadasis of the famous Kapaleeshwara temple in Madras. She began training in Abhinayam there and continued her lessons in pure dance or Nritta from Kannappa Mudaliar of Kanchipuram. He was the brother-in-law of the famous Elappa Pillai. Kalanidhi began her training in dance. Guru Chinnayya Naidu another famous scholar of Telugu, Sanskrit and Abhinayam also taught her for a short while. Those years it was impossible for anyone training in dance to not know music. In fact it was a necessary qualification. Kalanidhi took training in Carnatic music from Guru Manakkal Sivarajan. But her actual training was from Guru Kamakshi Ammal, the daughter of the legendary Veena Dhanammal. It was here that Kalanidhi gathered a large repertoire of Padams and Javalis. By the time she debuted, Kalanidhi had also set a record for Brahmin girls taking to dance. Some of the leading Nattuvanars of that era like Dhanamanikkam and Ganesan, the son of Kandappa Pillai.
#Kalanidhi Narayanan being honured with the Padma Bhushan
3.As a little girl Kalanidhi earned fame by giving regular performances between 1938 to 1943. This was the time E Krishna Iyer was doing a campaign along with the prestigious Madras Music Academy to remove the antipathy associated with dance. In fact, she was the only Brahmin girl in that bunch of artistes. She performed in the Academy in 1939.
She got married and took a break from dance. For the next twenty-five years she was not to be seen until the 1970’s. However, she kept her interest in the dance form and arts continued. She studied the Shastras and the various books on dance from her teacher S Sarada. She also studied with Tamil scholars like A S Gnanasambandan, Telugu scholars like Arudra and V A K Ranga Rao to improve her understanding of Sahityam. After the untimely demise of her husband, Kalanidhi had completely withdrawn from all activity related to dance. It was arts patron and promoter Y G Doraiswamy who brought her back to public life. He felt that the dance scene of that era was too cluttered with dancers who were busy exhibiting their virtuosity in pure dance. He saw that there was a vaccum in the slower Abhinayam aspects. He was also aware of the fact the Kalanidhi had learnt it from some of the earlier masters and requested her to teach. She accepted his request and began teaching at the Madras Kendra of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Kalanidhi was well into her forties and had passed the prime of her performing age. Her physique was not what is used to be. But her knowledge of the art form was strong in her mind. She decided to pass it on to anyone interested and henceforth teaching became her mainstay.
#Kalanidhi being honoured with the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi award from President Venkataraman and Chairman Girish Karnad
4.Students flocked to her! The dance scene was in dire need of someone who could codify and easily teach Abhinayam and Kalanidhi , with all her training and knowledge fit perfectly into that space. Some students trained with her for long and some for a shorter while. She began touring the world giving Abhinayam workshops. Some of the popular names in the dance world who trained in Abhinayam from her are Priyadarsini Govind, Bragha Bassel, Jayanthi Subramaniam, Jamuna Krishna, Alarmel Valli, Malavika Sarukkai, Pratibha Prahlad, Shobhana Balachandra, Vidya Subramanyam, Shanta Rati Misra and many others. She was the most sought after Abhinayam Guru. So much so, many young dancers who would have attended a simple workshop would flash her name on their biodatas. The technology age was embraced by the world of dance and luckily we have a lot of her videos available on YouTube.
5.
A long list of prestigious awards came her way. The Padma Bhushan Award from President of India Gnani Zail Singh in 1985, the Nrithya Choodamani from the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai in 1990, the Kalaimamani award from the Govt of Tamil Nadu in 1990, the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1991, the Kalidas Samman from Govt of Madhya Pradesh in 1998. After a long successful career as an Abhinayam Guru, Kalanidhi Narayanan passed away in Chennai on February 21, 2016. She was 87. She leaves a large battalion of students as a legacy. They continue to spread the fragrance of her art through their own practice and teaching.
(Veejay Sai is an award-winning writer, editor and a culture critic. He writes extensively on Indian performing arts, cultural history, food and philosophy. He lives in New Delhi )
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8. Exploration of expressions : ANJANA RAJAN : OCTOBER 10, 2016 05:01 IST : THEHINDU
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Veteran Kalanidhi Narayanan offered valuable tips.
The fifth morning of The Music Academy’s Dance Festival featured abhinaya doyenne Kalanidhi Narayanan.
A fine introduction by Sujatha Vijayaraghavan led into the well-attended lecture-demonstration. While the doyenne sat on a chair on stage and voiced her thoughts on the subject, Bragha Bassel, one of her leading disciples, performed illustrative portions from various songs.
“In 1973, I came back to teaching, persuaded by Y.G.Doraiswami,” recalled Kalanidhi, remarking that her special interest in abhinaya lay in exploring the situations inherent in the lyrics and expressing them in as many ways as possible. By way of example, she showed how the same mudra, such as shikhara to represent the question ‘what?’ could be imbued with innumerable moods, pointing out that not only the position of the eyes and facial expression, but the entire body would be affected by the bhava.
“According to the feeling, the hand and body react,” she said, adding that this approach could be taught only up to a point. Each of her students, she added, built up the art individually and each would have a unique manner of expression, since an artiste’s experience, age and imagination all played a role in the abhinaya created.
However, there were certain basics, she pointed out. “You have to keep the character, the basic rasa of the padam in mind.” Most padams, she explained, have a descriptive portion in the anupallavi.
Citing the famous composition “Indendu Vachitivira,” she said, since it is in the voice of a khandita nayika, the sthayi bhava must be maintained even during the line, “Mandaragiridharudaina…,” where Krishna is referred to as the great Mahavishnu who held up Mount Mandara during the churning of the ocean of milk. “You can’t forget the anger,” she warned.
Another practical tip she offered was how to mime the different characters with enough space on stage so as not to confuse the audience. Much of her advice was common sense, but necessary in a confused scenario where one sometimes wonders whether the dancers themselves are clear on the basics of the technique.
“Only one hand cannot tell a tale,” she added. “The whole face is more important. Without hand gestures, the expressions alone may not be understood, but without expressions, the hands alone cannot explain.”
Bragha performed extracts from a number of compositions, including “Yaro Ivar Yaro,” which her guru said she chose because it is often mistaken for a female voice, whereas a careful reading of the lyrics shows it represents Rama expressing his attraction for Sita. Here, as in the padam “Vadaraka Pove,” Bragha excelled in the subtle shades that produce memorable cameos of a lover.
Poignant look :
Leela Samson, director of Kalakshetra, brought the week of morning lecture-demonstrations to an end with an interesting talk and performance that evolved out of a necessity to change accompanists due to illness. In the first portion, she spoke of jatis and teermanams as they have evolved in the Bharatanatyam format, specifically choosing a number of percussion patterns created by mridangam vidwan Karaikkudi Krishnamurthy.
Acknowledging his contribution to her own and other dancers’ growth, she said, “When I was a child he had already set the path for mridangam playing for dance.” Pointing out the innate musicality of the jatis composed by Krishnamurthy, she demonstrated a number of these, explaining the way the dance steps were placed within the recited syllables so that each complemented the other.
Earlier, she performed the Bibhas raga composition of Madhup Mudgal, “Babhoova Bhasmai,” extracted from Kalidasa’s Kumara Sambhavam, in which Siva is portrayed getting ready for his marriage to Parvati. Explaining why she had used teermanams from Rukmini Devi Arundale’s famous dance composition for the Thodi varnam “Roopamu Joochi,” she said, “The reason I reinserted them into my piece is because they are teermanams I loved so much that I didn’t want to do them only when I presented ‘Roopamu Joochi.’”
She used the teermanams also as examples of the old style prevalent in the 1960s and the present-day, when jatis are extremely elaborate, long and ornate, and the equally elaborate dance work creates a “filigreed” effect.
In “Babhoova Bhasmai,” the dual nattuvangam by Shobana Swamy and Sheejith Krishna provided a powerful effect during the jatis. Sheejith’s recitation of sarvalaghu sollus during her simple striking (sama thattu) also enhanced the mood of the piece, in which Kalidasa evocatively describes the lustre of Siva, whose passion for his bride gives an extraordinary beauty to his ordinary adornments — snakes, tiger skin, his third eye and vibhuti, etc. The piece went down very well.
Leela also performed to a recorded thumri sung by Vasundhara Komkali, as an example of how inspired music brings out the best in a dancer, and to the Revati tillana by Lalgudi Jayaraman. Vocal by Deepu Nair was an asset, along with mridangam by Vijayaraghavan, veena by Ananthanarayanan, flute by Muthukumar and violin by Easwara Ramakrishnan.
THE END.
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