Radhe Jaggi was not really serious about being a Bharatnatyam dancer at first. Upon some coxing from her mother, she took a few classes off and on. Thank god for that push, in the years to follow, she realised she couldn’t do without it. Now, Radhe is in the city for her upcoming performance at Shri Sathya Sai International Centre today at 6.30 pm for which she has chosen a few slow pieces that are more descriptive than story-like. “Every performance is a new experience. Based on the setting, the mood, the musicians, the performance always turns out to be unique. Sometimes it’s planned and sometimes unplanned, but the results are always beautiful,” she says.
Daughter of renowned yogi, mystic and spiritual master Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Radhe has always had complete support from her father—her biggest critic and her biggest admirer too. “He’s very encouraging of my dance. I think he would have been encouraging of anything I choose to pursue as long as I did the best I could. He has a very keen eye and so his feedback is always something I look forward to because he notices smaller details that I may have missed,” she says.
Having performed extensively throughout Tamil Nadu, Bhopal, Bangalore and other places, Radhe has also toured the US extensively. Her style is a blend of artistic abhinaya and streamlined adavus in the tradition of the great Rukmini Devi Arundale. “The understanding of movement and expression is crucial in this form and I have had to work a lot on it through years of study and practice of yoga,” she says.
A product of the Kalakshetra foundation, Radhe has had the privilege of being trained by several gurus, including Padmashree Leela Samson. Right after 10th grade, she took off from formal education and joined Kalakshetra for a full-time dance course. It was there that she really began to see the beauty of the art form and developed an appreciation for it. After having graduated from there, Radhe went on to do a course in arts management from Dakshin Chitra. By then, Radhe knew that she would continue dancing forever, and she did.
The Sunday Standard