PADMA Bhushan? Check.
International recognition? Check.
The adoration and respect of the Indian classical dance world? Check.
Yet Dr Padma Subrahmanyam (right) refuses to rest on her laurels. With her countless accomplishments as India’s leading and most respected classical dance exponent, choreographer, singer, composer, a research scholar, teacher and author, the sprightly danseuse, who is in her 60s, continues to perform 11 months out of the year.
On May 8, she and her disciple Dr Gayathri Kannan will perform in Singapore at the Soorya Global Festival Of Indian Dance and Music. The festival was started in India by Kerala-based cultural society Soorya three decades ago.
Since 2005, the Singapore chapter has been holding the festival every May and November.
She told tabla! that she has a soft spot for Singapore since she has been a regular visitor for the last 25 years and has collaborated with local dance exponents like Santha Bhaskar and Neila Sathyalingam in various festivals including the Singapore Arts Festival.
As for hanging up her dancing anklets, she considers the very idea inconceivable: “This commitment is a lifetime commitment. I would never be satisfied if others said I danced well. I have to say that I danced well.”
Calling dancing her “meditation”, she added: “It is the secret of success. Work is worship said the Bhagavad Gita.”
But when pressed about the secret of her stamina, she revealed that she declares November her “compulsory holiday” month and spends time at a traditional ayurvedic spa in Coimbatore to rejuvenate herself “physically and emotionally”.
Dr Padma received her bachelor’s degree in music, her master’s in ethno musicology and a doctorate in dance from Annamalai University.
She is now the director of Nrityodaya School of Dance in Chennai – it was founded by her father K. Subrahmanyam, a film director and freedom fighter – and is known for developing the dance form Bharata Nrityam.
She also pushes the boundaries with her performances, often experimenting with her work. In the 1980s, during a tour of the then Soviet Union, she depicted the Jatayu Moksham from the Ramayana, set to the music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Romeo And Juliet.
It reportedly got her a 10-minute standing ovation from the Russian crowd.
Currently she is researching the common links between the various arts forms across Asia, and believes that Singapore can be a major centre in developing what she calls the “Asian aesthetic”.
“Singapore can revitalise the common self-esteem of Asia. Asia has unlimited beauty and we have so much to give,” she said.
Soorya Global Festival Of Indian Dance And Music
When: May 8, 7.30pm
Where: Victoria Theatre
Tickets: $10 to $50. Free admission for Soorya members.
Contact: 9389-0407
