Satyanarayana Raju is one of the leading male Bharatanatyam dancers of South India and hails from Bangalore an important city in the neighbouring Karnataka State. As I had mentioned in the write up on one of my albums Bharatanatyam dance is an art from which is predominantly dominated by female artists. Many young girls would aspire to become a Bharatanatyam dancer but not many boys. This does not mean that boys do not take up to this art from. At the Kalakshetra Foundation (one of the leading institutions of India for imparting training in Bharatanatyam dance) there are quite a number of male students pursuing this art form.
It may also be remembered that some of the renowned Gurus of Bharatanatyam are men such as:
The Tanjore Quartet, (Chinnayya Pillai, Ponnayya Pillai, Sivanandam Pillai and Vadivelu Pillai,), Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai, S K Rajarathnam Pillai, The Pandanallur Gurus such as T K Swaminatha Pillai, Meenakshisunderam Pillai, Chockalingam Pillai and the well known Subbaraya Pillai (whose centenary was recently celebrated in Chennai), Adyar Lakshman, Prof. C V Chandrasekhar, Dhananjayan and many others who have been legends in their life time.
In the recent past I had the opportunity to attend the performance of three male dancers such as: Shanmugasundaram, A Lakshman and Satyanarayana Raju. All the three are outstanding Bharatanatyam dancers who have carved out a distinct space for themselves in this female dominated dance format.
Satyanarayana Raju is a highly trained and accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer who has trained under several Gurus. He has won several awards and has given many performances in India. Satyanarayana is the Artistic Director of “Samskruthi” – The Temple of Art which is a cultural organization in Bangalore. He imparts training in classical dancing to a number of young aspirants.
Enjoy the pictures.
Shankar Adisesh.
Category:Lifestyle and Recreation
Subcategory:Dancing
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords:Bharatanatyam, Bharatanatyamdance, Chennaidanceseason, Indianclassicaldance, Satyanarayanaraju, Southindianclassicaldance