GenY dancers are enthusiastic but lack discipline: Dr Rekha Raju

Even before she was born, Dr Rekha Raju’s mother, Jayalakshmi Raghavan, had sworn to herself that if she had a daughter she would definitely initiate her into the world of classical dance. Despite being trained in Carnatic music, Jayalakshmi wasn’t able to perform in front of a large audience owing to her conservative background. So, when Rekha was all of three, her mother decided to put her into the careful hands of dance guru Padmini Ramachandran to guide her in Bharatanatyam.

“My guru was apprehensive of inducting such a young child. I started crying when I saw her teaching other students. So, she taught me namaskara. After rehearsing it back home thoroughly, I went back next day and showcased the steps perfectly. When my guru saw this, she hugged me and told me I was meant to dance and agreed to take me under her wings. I gave my first stage performance as a four-and-a-half-year-old,” she says. Rekha was the youngest of all in the whole class but she involved in all the shows in just six months of her admission. She had a performance every week which marked her excellence in dance. 

Rekha performed her arangetram when she was 16. By the time she was 20 she had started her dance school — Nrithya Dhama School of Dance and Music in Bengaluru. She wanted to train tridents of all cadre i.e. poor or rich from rural or urban, her aim is to spread the knowledge of dance under one roof. Though Bharatanatyam was the foundation of her dance career, she learnt Mohiniattam from the acclaimed Prof A Janardhanan and has now shifted her focus to this dance form.

Interestingly, Rekha mastered academics and dance together, earning Master’s degrees in business administration and performing arts simultaneously. A chartered accountant in the making, Rekha took up classical dancing as her full time career. She says, “I have never consciously tried to balance dance and academics. Luckily, I always had been a decent student (she is being modest here. She stood third in the state in Class 10 boards and was a topper in Class 12 exams). Dance is my passion. So they both became an essential part of my life.” “I started by teaching Bharatanatyam but when my students saw me performing Mohiniattam, they also switched to this dance f o r m . Bharatanatyam has crisp movements while Mohiniattam has slow and free-flowing movements. So the former is tougher as you need more body control,” explains Rekha. As a young exponent of dance, Rekha has a lot of achievements to her credits, like a doctoral degree, many awards and recognitions representing Mohiniattam at various universities inside and outside India. 

Being a young dance guru, does she find it challenging to deal with the current generation of dancers? “I like to believe I am a strict teacher and my students follow my orders (she laughs). But on a serious note, I am friendly with them but I also except discipline. The current generation is well-exposed, sharp and knows what they want, but they lack the proper discipline and a certain reverence for the guru,” she puts forth. 

Talking about her upcoming performance, “This will be my third time at the Music and Dance Festival in the city. During the first time, I felt that the crowd here is more used to Bharatanatyam and it was difficult to make your presence felt as a Mohiniattam artiste. But in the second season, I found a niche audience. Besides, when you perform a dance form, you connect spiritually with divine powers. The number of people seeing your performance becomes secondary then,” she finishes.