Cultural treat awaits Bharata Natyam enthusiasts

The challenging art of Bharata Natyam will once again come under the spotlight as a 11-year-old student presents her solo performance in Auckland later this month.

Divya Krishnamurthi, a student of Kalaichelvi (Selvi) Uthayakumaran, Principal and Director of the Howick based Narthana Alayam School of Indian Dance, will present a number of dance items at her Arangetram (public debut) on Saturday, April 27 at 515 pm at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School.

Innovative numbers

Although she would present traditional items such as Jatiswaram, Varnam and Thillana, we expect that Selvi would have used her innovative spirit in her choreography and selection of songs for each of the items of Bharata Natyam.

Divya will be accompanied by Selvi (Natuvangam), Gomathi Nayagam Ratnam (Vocal), Shankar Venkatraman (Violin), Narayan Nagai Subramanian (Mridhangam) and Ramesh Baswa Nagarajan (Flute)

A Year 11 student at the Diocesan School for Girls (Epsom), she evinced interest in the Indian classical dance when she was five years old and has since been under the watchful eye of Selvi, following her stringent disciplinary codes.

“Apart from Indian classical music and dance, Divya has been evincing keen interest in Ramayana and Mahabharata, the two great Hindu epics,” she said.

The Bharata Natyam guru has thus far presented the Arangetram of 30 disciples from her school, which accounts for more than 100 students.

Other interests

Divya has also been learning classical piano for more than five years from Pamela Miller of the New Zealand Modern School of Music, and won citations and medals at a number of competitions.

She has had ample support from her parents Murali and Dr Rita Krishnamurthi (both of Indo-Fijian origin). She imbibed her musical talent from her mother (a singer of the ‘Swarangal’ orchestra) and her maternal grandmother Sita Chalam, a popular singer in Fiji in the 1970s.

Her paternal grandparents Dr and Mrs Sarada Krishnamurthi instilled a sound knowledge of Hindu culture and in faith.