PADMA SUBRAHMANYAM
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She gave performances conducted by her guru, her school and also continued her college education. Padma has a Bachelor’s degree in Music, Master’s in Ethno Musicology and Ph.D in dance. Her music training was under the famous B.V. Lakshman and Salil Chaudhry. Composer:
Singer:
Dancer and choreographer:
She composed and choreographed the dance drama 'Meenakshi Kalyanam' when she was still in her teens as her guru was otherwise engaged and she bravely took up the task. In the early 70s, in her 'Krishnaya Thubyam Namaha', she dispensed with several accepted norms and projected movements that were not in the Bharatanatyam grammar. She played all the roles in her dance drama, composed the musical score, thus bringing her mono acting abilities to the fore, unrepressed by any conventions. Her costumes reflected the sculptures she had done research on. With her leaps into the air, gliding across the floor and striking sharp poses, her supple movements moved Bharatanatyam into an enjoyable entertainment. Thus began a series of thematic presentations based on this successful formula. She did away with nattuvangam, but retained sollukattus (syllables of spoken rhythm) to suit her movements and used Shyamala Balakrishnan's vocal skills to highlight the highs and lows in her dance dramas. Shyamala joined the Tamil Nadu Sangeeta Nataka Sangam in 1961 and her research on musical aspects of folk songs of Tamil Nadu resulted in her collecting 400 varnams and 60 kuravanjis. The “Viralimalai Kuravanji” (one of the three Kuravanjis for which she learnt the original music from the Devadasis) brought her in touch with Nrityodaya, founded by Padma's father K. Subrahmanyam. She and Padma collaborated on the work for which Vazhavoor Ramayya Pillai set the dance and later on 'Meenakshi Kalyanam', Padma's first venture in choreography, which had music, researched by Shyamala. The partnership was further strengthened when Shyamala married Padma’s brother V. Balakrishnan. In 1963, Padma staged the dance drama 'Nagarukku Appal' based on the folk music researched by Shyamala. Padma created new tunes for her new types of dance compositions and this was successful because of effective rendering by Shyamala who rendered the lyrics in tune to Padma's portrayal. Padma has sung for many dance performances, including for several albums accompanied by Shyamala Balakrishnan. Her latest
productions are “Nayanmar Moovar” in Tamil, Valluvarum Vedaneriyum” in
Tamil and “Bhagavad Gita” in Sanskrit. Bhagavad Gita consists of 4 sequences,
in an attempt to epitomize the 18 chapters. Out of 700 slokas, about 78
slokas have been used. Apart from the translation as a commentary for the
performance, the original slokas have also been given in Sanskrit separately.
When helping her brother Balakrishnan research for a documentary on temples, she stumbled upon the karanas - dance sculptures illustrating the Natya Sastra texts. She also read books by Ananda Coomaraswamy, T. N. Ramachandran and C. Sivaramamurthy. This heralded her research into the world of dance sculpture and she eventually did her thesis on ‘Karanas in Indian dance and sculpture’ as seen in the temples of Chidambaram, Thanjavur and Kumbakonam, for her Ph.D from Annamalai University. As a research scholar she has helped highlight the fact that the 108 Karanas (basic units of dance) are actually movements and not just static poses. She proved that dance sculptures are like photographs of moving dancers. She reconstructed these movements in their entirety through a correlated study of literature, sculptures and inscriptions, coupled with her own experiences as a dancer. Being an Indologist and a Sanskrit scholar, T. N. Ramachandran helped her greatly but Padma had years of devoted and painstaking research to do from a dancer's viewpoint, which resulted in 2 big volumes. Her research has established the unity of all Indian dances under the umbrella of the Natya Sastra and she conducts many workshops and camps on the subject. Padma was inspired by sculpture to design coiffures, costumes & jewellery to suit her karanas. Post independent India has seen the revival of various regional dance forms such as Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, Manipuri, Kathakali, Kuchipudi etc. Padma is the first to discover the long forgotten grammatical artistic base in ‘Marga’ i.e. the path shown by sage Bharatha, common to all Indian forms. Like how the Sanskrit language co-existed with all the regional languages, the ‘Marga’ had co-existed with the indigenous groups till about 5 centuries ago. Padma has revived this Marga technique common to the entire Indian subcontinent and even beyond. Based on her research, she announces her programs as ‘Bharatha Nrityam’. Also, using the same communication technique and using the language of the respective regions, she has choreographed Bharatha Nrityam recitals in Tamil, Kashmiri, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam languages. She has also used Russian songs to demonstrate the ‘abhinaya’ technique. As part of
her attempts at experimentation, she depicted ‘Jatayu Moksham’ (in Ramayana),
set to the Tchaikovsky's ballet Romeo and Juliet, and "Gajendra Moksham"
set to the music of Miagi Michio of Japan.
Achievements:
Apart from discovering candid links between Natya Sastra and Indonesia, Padma realized through the lectures of the sage of Kanchi, the importance of ancient Tamil literature – “Thiruppavai” and “Thiruvempavai” - being used in Thailand where she used these in her group presentation “Pavai Nomabu” also involving Thai dancers along with her own artistes. She gave a joint lecture demonstration on Natya Sastra at the college of Fine Arts, Bangkok along with Achan Chaturong Montri Sat, Thai Professor of Dance. Her visit to Japan and Australia have considerably strengthened her conviction about Asia’s common cultural links. Countries
visited:
Documentation:
She wrote the script, scored music, choreographed and personally appeared in the 13-segment film “Bharatiya Natya Sastra” produced by Nrityodaya and directed by her brother V Balakrishnan which was telecast on Doordarshan National network. This film won her the “Panchajanyam Award” from Vigil, a public opinion forum. Russia has produced a film on Padma titled “Queen of Dance”. NHK, Japan has made a film on her under their series “Asia’s Who’s Who”. Another film “Padma” was produced by Film Australia. Films Division, Govt of India has also produced a film on her. Dr.Christopher Byrski (Warsaw University and later ambassador of Poland in India) has dedicated his research publication “Concept of Ancient Indian Theatre” to Padma Subrahmanyam. Padma’s life and contribution is the subject of a dissertation for a Master’s degree in Sociology written by Chamundeswari. Her biography in Tamil has been done by Padma’s disciple Sundari Santhanam. In November 2001, Padma has presented a video production “Natya Sastramum Nadigar Tilagamum” with a compilation of clippings from about 50 films of the legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan, to prove that self-experience in the field of theater leads to adhering to theoretical rules laid down in the Natya Sastra, even if there is no knowledge of the text. Awards and
Honors:
She has also received the prestigious “Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize” from Japan for her contribution to development and harmony in Asia. She has served as a non-official member of the Indo-Sub-commission for education and culture. She has also been a member of the General Council of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Executive Committee of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi and the Tamilnadu Iyal Isai Nataka Manram, Chennai. She has been associated with many universities and is also a member of the Advisory Committee for Chennai Doordarshan. Conclusion:
Padma Subrahmanyam
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