Mridangam maestro Umayalpuram Sivaraman is believed to have once told an NRI music enthusiast that learning music through Skype is like sniffing a plastic flower for its fragrance. Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher A Lakshmanaswamy may not be the one to employ an analogy, but he sure dismisses the idea of teaching online in a jiffy, calling it the way to go bonkers.
This ill-will to teach dance on the Internet should, however, not be misconstrued as Lakshman’s disinterest in making his art international. The 49-year-old’s first student, back in 1996, was a Japanese Saiko Yamamoto, who now heads the Japan unit of his dance school Nrithyalakshana. Even on the day of this interview, Lakshmanaswamy was tutoring three Indian-Americans — Kiran Rajagopal, Srijith Vaidhya and Radica Giri. “When dance is an emotion, how can you simulate that in your student without meeting her,” he asks, with genuine concern about how dance schools have populated the Internet sphere.
Talk about the cluttering of dance schools in Chennai today, and that elicits an interesting repartee from Lakshman. “The mushrooming of dance schools is why there is no baani (distinctive style) in dance today. Earlier, the lines of dance styles were clearly drawn. Like the Vazhuvoor baani or the Kalakshetra style. Today, teachers train students in a bit of everything. So, we should probably have an Anna Nagar baani or a Mogappair baani,” he says, referring to dance schools in Chennai’s small localities.
Not that Lakshman is dismissive of this dance school frenzy in Chennai. “It is a good trend. You can’t learn a subject by reading one book. The more you explore in dance, the finer your nuances get,” he sermonises.
Lakshmanaswamy’s unique baani (if he will allow us to use the word) is in itself a compilation of a cornucopia of dance influences. Born in 1963 in Malaysia, Lakshmanaswamy learnt the basics of dance there from Veera Venogopal. When he was 21, he relocated to Chennai to professionalise his dance skills. Here, he trained with the most-popular and first woman nattuvanar (conductor of the dance ensemble) K J Sarasa for a good 11 years. He specialised in abhinaya or expression from Kalanidhi Narayanan and polished his Bharatanatyam traits by working with stalwarts like Sudharani Raghupathy (Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum), Anita Ratnam (Panchajanyam) and with Lalgudi Jayaraman (for his ballet Jayajayadevi). He still consults constantly with dance expert C V Chandrasekar. “Only in 1996 did I start my dance school Nrithya Lakshana. I first taught Saiko, who then helped establish a branch of my dance school in Japan,” he explains. His student Radica is all set to establish his dance school in the US shortly. “I never advertise for students. With arts, nothing works like word-of-mouth assurances. My students often initiate their friends into dance with my training,” he says. In Chennai, Lakshman teaches in Anna Nagar and T Nagar.
How does he view the mayhem during the music season in the month of margazhi (mid-December to mid-January) in Chennai? “There is no procedure followed to choose performers. Interested artistes apply and know nothing about why they are selected or rejected. If you want to be given a chance, you should know to do your PR. Or you should have the money power to ensure a slot for yourself. Without money or your marketing skills, talented dancers too do not stand a chance,” he exclaims. The only other factor that can help a musician then is flaunting the name of a well-revered godfather, he adds thoughtfully. And that should not be a tough deal for guru Lakshmanaswamy’s able protégés.