Kalakshetra Foundation: Difference between revisions

Year-long celebrations, including lectures, seminars and festivals marked her 100th birth anniversary, on 29 February 2004, at Kalakshetra and elsewhere in many parts of the world.<ref>{{cite news |title=Another centenary celebration |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/01/27/stories/2003012700070300.htm |publisher=[[The Hindu]] |date=27 January 2003 |access-date=6 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216084110/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/01/27/stories/2003012700070300.htm |archive-date=16 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Also on 29 February, a photo exhibition on her life opened at the Lalit Kala Gallery in New Delhi, and President [[A. P. J. Abdul Kalam]] released a photo-biography, written and compiled by [[Sunil Kothari]], with a foreword by former president [[R. Venkataraman|Ramaswamy Venkataraman]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Her spirit still reigns |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2004/02/22/stories/2004022200380500.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130103085459/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2004/02/22/stories/2004022200380500.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 January 2013 |publisher=[[The Hindu]] |date=22 February 2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Time to celebrate|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/02/27/stories/2003022700330100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040829172954/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/02/27/stories/2003022700330100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 August 2004 |work= [[The Hindu]]|date= 27 February 2003}}</ref><ref>[http://narthaki.com/info/reviews/rev158.html Centenary celebrations] nartaki.com</ref> In 2016, marking its 80th year, the Kalakshetra Foundation held a 'Remembering Rukmini Devi’ festival of music and dance.<ref>{{cite web | title = Kalakshetra celebrates its 80th year |work= The Hindu | url = http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/kalakshetra-celebrates-its-80th-year/article8280926.ece | access-date = 2016-03-30 |date=25 February 2016| first = Radhika | last = Santhanam  }}</ref>

[[File:Secretary Clinton, Leela Samson, and Ambassador Burleigh Enjoy a Bharat Natyam Performance (2).jpg|thumb|left|Bharatanatyam performance at Kalakshetra, during visit of Hillary Clinton, 2011]]

According to Sankara Menon (1907–2007), who was her associate from Kalakshetra's beginnings,<ref>{{cite news |title=Guru who inspired love (Sankara Menon’s centenary at Kalakshetra) |url=http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/09/28/stories/2007092850930100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105072622/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/09/28/stories/2007092850930100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 November 2007 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> Rukmini Devi raised Bharatanatyam to a puritan art form, divorced from its recently controversial past by "removing objectionable elements" (mostly, the ''[[Sringara]]'', certain emotional elements evocative of the erotic, such as hip, neck, lip and chest movements) from the [[Pandanallur style]], which was publicly criticized by Indian dancer [[Balasaraswati|Tanjore Balasaraswati]] (1918–1984)  and other representatives of [[Tamil Nadu]]'s traditional Isai Velalar culture. Love outside parameters considered "chaste" was not to be portrayed. Balasaraswati said that "the effort to purify Bharatanatyam through the introduction of novel ideas is like putting a gloss on burnished gold or painting the lotus". Lawyer and classical artist [[E. Krishna Iyer]] (1897–1968) said about Rukmini Devi, "There is no need to say that before she entered the field, the art was dead and gone or that it saw a renaissance only when she started to dance or that she created anything new that was not there before".

Notable alumni include [[Radha Burnier]], [[ Amala Akkineni]], [[Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay]], [[Sanjukta Panigrahi]], [[C.V. Chandrasekhar]], [[Dhananjayans]],  [[Adyar K. Lakshman]], [[Jayashree Narayanan]], [[Leela Samson]],<ref>[http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1993/11/1993-11-02.shtml Noted students of Kalakshetra],{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080312002731/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1993/11/1993-11-02.shtml |date=2008-03-12 }}</ref> [[Satyavati Motiram Sirsat]], [[Jaya Thyagarajan]], [[Devoleena Bhattacharjee]], and [[Ananda Shankar Jayant]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anandashankarjayant.com |title=Welcome |publisher=Anandashankarjayant.com |access-date=2012-08-03}}</ref>