Right Moves

By Sumati Mehrishi Sharma - Ahmedabad Newsline
cities.expressindia.com - Saturday, March 11, 2006

After performing to sufi chants, Bharatnatyam exponent Rama Vaidyanathan wants to experiment with thumris.

For a classical dancer, Rama Vaidyanathan doesn’t make quite the right moves sometimes. Like performing Bharatnatyam to sufi music or doing so wearing a black veil at the recent Jahen-e-Khusro Festival — the first exponent to do so. But then, this is what makes for a perfect profile if you are participating in the Seventh National Festival of New Choreography beginning on April 11 at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

“If you are intimidated by what others have to say about your imagination, you’ll never grow beyond the traditional idiom and nayikas. In that case, choreographies will not happen,” says Vaidyanathan, who believes that after a certain stage dancers should not hesitate to experiment.