BENGALURU: With Kathak legend and guru Dr Maya Rao as her mother, you would think dance would have been the first career choice for Madhu Nataraj. However, the Bengaluru-based choreographer and dancer, known for breaking norms, never wanted to become a dancer. “I think dance had already chosen me,” she says.
The 48-year-old dancer wanted to be a journalist or fashion designer. But life took a different course. “I was born in an art-inclined family, and artists, poets and philosophers were always walking into the house,” she tells CE. “So I was brought up with art around me, and I wanted to support it by writing about it. But something personal happened, and I came back to dance, but in my own way,” she adds. Nataraj had learnt Kathak earlier, and went to New York to study contemporary dance, after which she returned to India to introduce contemporary Indian dance. In 1995, she formed her dance company called STEM (Space.Time.Energy.Movement) Dance Kampni, which, she says, was Karnataka’s first contemporary dance company.
“Now, I see there are many Indian contemporary dance companies, which I am happy about,” says Nataraj. She is now coming up with a new programme that will work on introducing dance as a curriculum to children in rural areas and urban slums, which will be launched in mid-2020.
Apart from dance, if there is something else that interests her, it’s textiles. Nataraj is known for her impeccable and eclectic dressing style. She loves shopping fabric from local markets and styling it into something of her own. “I have made a dress out of a table cloth, which had Frida Kahlo’s image on it. I have also picked up jewellery from the markets of Kazakhstan,” says Nataraj, adding that she is currently planning to design something out of an old sari that she inherited from her mother.
“There are some old fabric stores in Malleswaram that source directly from the weavers. I get many fabrics from there too,” she reveals. The fact that she lives in Malleswaram makes it easier for her to enjoy the dosa at Veena Stores. “I am an old Koshy’s person. Even today, for the birth anniversary of either of my parents, I still go to Koshy’s. I also love Mediterranean and Pan-Asian food,” she says, going on to talk about having a sweet tooth and indulging herself once in a while, and then compensating by doing extra surya namaskar.
Nataraj is also an avid traveller, and when asked about the number of countries she has visited, she playfully asks us to take a wild guess. We are wide off the mark, and she promptly gives the correct figure – 51. Travel, she says, keeps her humble and gives perspective to her life.
“I travel a lot on work, but it does not stop there. I save up and travel more. I am one of those kind for whom things like jewellery and properties are of no interest,” say Nataraj, who last travelled to Japan and Vietnam. Next on her list are Panama, Mexico and Jamaica, and she hopes to touch 60 by the end of next year.