Profile by radhika gupta by Freestyle Academy

Bharatnatyam in the Bay A Profile by Radhika Gupta

shwini Srivatsan was eight years old when she decided she wanted to dance. Srivatsan recalls first being inspired by a girl around her age performing at a talent show: “[The girl] just looked so happy. I remembered going back home and dancing in front of the mirror .

. . I felt so free and happy.” She continues, “For me, it was just that moment of watching someone dance and then coming home and trying it and then being hooked” (A. Srivatsan). She experimented with dance on her own. First, it was just twirling around the room, looking up videos, choreographing her own pieces.

She would attend dance performances then come home and try to replicate the dancer’s movements in the mirror. Eventually, she signed up for formal dance lessons. Srivatsan recalls being drawn to classical dance: “With Bharatnatyam there was just so much. So much music, so much history. I started learning

about it and I was just fascinated and I wanted to go deeper and learn as much as I possibly could.” Google Ashwini Srivatsan and you’ll probably stumble across images of the dancer in vibrant colors, decked out in traditional jewelry and in a number of different poses. Srivatsan dances to the beat of her own tabla, resisting the contemporary zeitgeist. Celebrated American dancer Martha Graham echoes this sentiment: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” Through the creation of her own dance company, Kanha School of Dance, Srivatsan has been able to cultivate her own brand of Bharatnatyam. Intricate

and elegant, much like the jhumkas that adorn her ears, Srivatsan’s style of dance involves going back to Bharatnatyam’s ancient roots and teaching the art in its purest form. Bharatnatyam is a “classical Indian dance that dates as

With a vivid history that spans multiple centuries, Bharatnatyam was originally practiced by devdasis in temples and is often paired with Carnatic music to offer viewers a delight meant for the Gods. The dance form remains a cultural symbol, the only one of its kind to preserve its roots while being an example of creative evolution in everything from storylines to costumes to music. Srivatsan grew up in Bangalore, one of India’s most diverse and culturally rich cities. Coming from an artistic background, much of her family was well versed in music, dance, and many of the other Vedic arts. When she emigrated to California during her high school years, she found it almost logistically impossible to keep up with her classical dance training. “There has definitely been a drastic change in the endorsement of Indian dance in the Bay Area”, she says. Later on, she adds, “When I moved here, there were

“Srivatsan dances to the beat of her own tabla.”

far back as the Rig Veda. [The dance] has evolved from a highly codified style to one affording maximum freedom to create innovative works” (Khokar 9).

very few classes or organizations that could help further my training. In fact, I had to travel back to India each summer in order to finish my learning and then eventually complete my Arangetram” (A. Srivatsan). An Arangetram is a two hour solo performance that signifies a dancer’s mastery of Bharatnatyam. Usually completed after years of extensive training, an Arangetram holds immense cultural significance in the South Indian community, equivalent to a graduation of sorts. Nikita Pasumarthi, a student of Srivatsan’s, completed her Arangetram after 3 years under Srivatsan’s training. Pasumarthi recalls the first time she met Ashwini: “I was really shocked because she was so young and really pretty. . .she [didn’t] give off that teacher sort of vibe. I felt I would be very comfortable talking to her and learning from her. You know, she never got frustrated. . .I made several mistakes and I would be frustrated with myself but she never gave

up on me. .she continued to teach me with a smile.” She reminisces about her favorite memory with Srivatsan: “It was during, the last song of my Arangetram, the very last moment when I bow to the audience. I looked at her and she was smiling at me, she looked so proud. I remember that very clearly and I’m just really proud of that moment.” Pasumarthi was the first of Srivatsan’s students to complete an Arangetram under her training, a milestone for both Pasumarthi as a burgeoning dancer and perhaps even more f o r

Ashwini as a professional dance instructor. Srivatsan’s journey as a dance teacher is a long one, a series of projects that led her to her true calling, Bharatnrityam. After a brief stint of teaching dance at the University of New Mexico, Ashwini relocated to the Bay Area where, in 2008, she co-founded Tattva, with Shalini, a friend. Tattva drew from both Ashwini and Shalini’s extensive training in multiple dance forms, everything from contemporary, to classical Indian, to cupuera. Eventually, Ashwini decided she wanted to return to

teaching classical dance full time. She founded Kanha School of Dance, so that she could keep her vision of Bharatnatyam alive and imbue her students with a deep appreciation for classical dance. Ashwini’s husband, Srivats, describes her as “intelligent, independent, and perc ep t ive . ” This, combined with her natural artistic inclination, “m a ke s her a good te acher. . it is very easy for her to present or commu n i c at e something because she understands her audience better. . .she is insightful enough to understand what is going on in other people’s minds.” True to her name, Ashwini seems to radiate beauty and confidence: “In her performances, she covers the entire stage. She just . . . she shines” (S. Srivatsan).

He notes how her passion for dance manifest in her day to day life: “Her dance makes her expressive, which makes communication easy for everybody because everyone understands her and her point of view. I don’t know what came first, the dancing or her ability to express herself,

plaining things. I knew her, at first, through my cousins so we would all get together and play dumb charades and she’d ace it every time because she could almost act out anything.” Bharatnatyam today is synonymous with “Bharat which dances to the eternal sounds of the drum of the u n ive rs e ” (Khokar, 76). The dance is able to transcend time, it is a performance without an end or beginning. Srivatsan hopes to someday make Kanha her full time job. “I think s o m ewh e re deep down, I always knew I was meant to dance and teach dance”, she says. “It is a source of joy for me and I want to spread the love I have for dance to others around me. It’s a beautiful art form and I love that through Kanha I can share it with so many people”.

“True to her name, Ashwini seems to radiate beauty and confidence.”

[but] I think they go hand in hand.” Srivats recalls his first impression of Ashwini as he says “She came off as a very intelligent person. Very smart, she was into dancing and the arts which I liked as well. She had this very artistic way of ex-

Work Cited Graham, Martha. The Notebooks of Martha Graham. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973. Print. Khokar, Ashish. Folk Dance: Tribal, Ritual & Martial Forms. New Delhi: Rupa, 2003. Print. Khokar, Ashish Mohan. Bharatnatyam. New Delhi: Rupa, 2002. Print. Pasumarthi, Nikita. Personal interview. 3 Oct. 2015. Srivatsan, Ashwini. Personal interview. 16 Sept. 2015. Srivatsan, Srivats. Personal interview. 4 Oct. 2015.