Padmapriya is not a novice on stage. In fact, her first tryst with jatis and tillanas happened long back. And, by the time she entered showville, she had a spate of stages and accolades to her credit. Now back to pursuing her initial passion, the actress is all set to perform in a string of elite festivals including Soorya and Swaralaya. “I want the focus to be on the dance rather than than the dancer. So I have opted for a group production rather than going solo,” she says.
A trained Bharatanatyan dancer, Padmapriya says she wasn’t drawn towards the art form one fine day. “Actually I can’t think of a time dance wasn’t part of my life. I fell in love with the sound of ankle bells at a much younger age and since then I have been dancing. Until I entered films I used to perform regularly. It was after around 200 stages and some scholarships that I joined the industry,” she says.
About the production she says it will be ‘like a repertoire of items that we have put together’. “It’s a group including my teacher and we have come up with something in margam format, though not strictly sticking to it.” As a dancer she believes each performing artist should try to enrich their art form. Quizzed on the rigid rules of classical dances she says, “I think there is much more to the dance form than what we are confined to.”
Ask her about dance being a spiritual experience and she says, “Classical dances, especially Bharatanatyam is extremely devout in nature. And there was a time when I was going through a phase of agnosticism. But dance was an integral part of my life and I wanted to pursue it with all my will. Then, at some point in your life, you let go of your beliefs to do something you really love and I returned to it.” she says classical dances are dying art forms and adds, “more dancers should be in this field.”
In the acting front she has just completed her portions for Prithviraj-starrer Tiyan and the actress ensures, “there is a lot more coming up, you will learn about it soon.”