Vazhuvoor ramaiah pillai biography of donald

Ramiah Pillai virtually retired from full-time teaching and conducting in the early &#;s and, from about onwards, his son Samraj has been occupying the gaddi. Pillai has, however, not completely withdrawn ; he has stayed on as an emeritus professor, giving guidance and suggestions, questioning his successor if he felt a change or innovation introduced by the latter strained the bani, and in general making the benefit of his experience available.

Samraj inherited the gaddi when he was hardly 25 years old. He is a vigorous 48 now — with a couple of decades of front-line experience behind him. He has already prepared a successor in Palaniappan, his son of 23 years. The youngster presently assists him in teaching and has started conducting recitals. He will take full-charge one day — and continue the tradition.

Change goes with continuity. Tradition, in order to survive, must make room for the creativity of its new handlers and also respond to the dynamics of changing environment in order to retain its relevance. The trick, for its custodians, is to accomodate the changes while yet protecting the central core of the tradition. Samraj, too, has introduced some changes and innovations. He feels they are for the better, although not everyone may agree with this self-assessment.

Samraj is, of course, quite proud of his inheritance. The Vazhuvoor bani, he says, is a vibrant synthesis of &#;attam&#; (natya) and abhinaya, &#;unlike the Pandanallur style which emphasizes the former and the Kanchipuram tradition which lays stress on the latter.&#; We ask : Isn&#;t it true, however, that very few dancers are good in both aspects? Can little girls and teenagers, who are hardly able to understand the deeper meaning of the lyrics of dance compositions, especially those that deal with sringara, be expected to do abhinaya well?  He agrees that there is a problem but says that even youngsters innocent of understanding can be taught to do abhinaya adequately. It depend

During the days of ‘sadir’, there were those who admired art as well as those who besmirched it. There was an attempt to put down dance as a social evil along with the devadasi system. Support for the art revived as people like E Krishna Iyer canvassed for the art through the encouragement he gave to artists, with speeches and writings in journals. It was around this time that Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai began his career. He naturally helped to remove the taboo around dance.

Vazhuvoorar realised early on that a tradition can be kept alive only if it adapts itself to the times and so he introduced innovations in the classical dance style to captivate audiences. He also changed the overall look of the dancers. He contributed in terms of designing the appropriate costumes for performances, suggested suitable make-up, stage arrangements including lighting, and use of musical instruments.

But he was also aware of the artist’s position in the world. He worked for the due recognition of ‘nattuvanars’, who had preserved the traditional dance styles.

Earlier ‘nattuvanars’ or gurus who conducted the dance recital used to tie their ‘angawasthiram’ or towel around their waist and conduct a recital while standing behind the dancer with the musicians. Vazhuvoorar brought an end to this disrespectful tradition. He wore the ‘angawasthiram’ on his shoulder and conducted the performance while sitting on the top it all, the silk dhoti he wore and his majestic appearance with kumkum smeared on his forehead served to bring glory to his presence on stage and set a trend for all those performing ‘nattuvangam’.

Once at Egmore museum theatre, Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai was conducting a ‘nattuvangam’ in the traditional way. Vazhuvoorar rushed to the master and entreated him to sit and conduct the show saying, “When I have done it in the seated posture, I cannot bear to see you stand for a nattuvangam”. He further said that the recognition of teachers was important as “Not on

Ahead of World Dance Day that falls on Friday, we look at the contribution of one of the great gurus of Bharatanatyam

Swami Vivekananda once emphasised that Indian history needed to be written by an Indian for bringing forth the true values of our tradition. This has inspired me to write about my grandfather Natyacharya Padmashri Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai. Belonging to a family of musicians and dance teachers, Vazhuvoorar was a creative master of the traditional mould and one of the direct descendants of the family which preserved and nurtured the centuries-old Vazhuvoor bani or tradition of classical dance.

Crisp and sculpturesque, the Vazhuvoor style is not only known for ‘abhinaya’ that conveys a mood or idea, the ‘nritya’ too is very expressive. Fluid grace and a deep yet subtle feel for ‘abhinaya’ is the hallmark of this bani. It was Vazhuvoorar who had started the practice of a dancer striking sculpturesque poses. He had also brought back into vogue the ‘teermanams’ or concluding ry to the then practice of performing in a confined space, Vazhuvoorar introduced a few changes in movements where the performer was trained to move around to cover the entire stage adding beauty and grace.

The dance guru made Bharatanatyam interesting to a cross section of people without sacrificing the classical form. This ancient style of dance reached audiences across the country especially through Vazhuvoorar’s star disciple Kamala Lakshman, who enthralled audiences so much so that they also took to dancing.

Vazhuvoorar, besides dance, learned music and composition of ‘jatis’ from his elders. At a tender age he used to write ‘jatis’ effortlessly, keeping time with his palm, to offbeat cycles. His sonorous and majestic rendering of the ‘sollukattu’ added to its beauty. Audiences listening to this were wonderstruck and all praise for him. Perhaps he was the only one in those times, followed by his son Vazhuvoor Samraj, who were gifted in delivering these ‘natya jatis’.