A born artiste
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Back from US tour, guru V.S. Ramamoorthy shares his experiences.
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Illustrious guru V.S. Ramamoorthy;
Observe his eye movements while he demonstrates an expression of a rasa bhava. Or listen to his rendition style of a padam, javali or a varnam, and you will be mesmerised. But, look at him and you will see a 87-year-old in a relaxed mood. He is the famous Bharatanatyam guru V. S. Ramamoorthy, who made Secunderabad his home and has been a guru to a number of Bharatanatyam artistes.
Ramamoorthy feels fortunate that he was born in a village named Krishnam Pettai, near Tiruvaiyyaru in the Kaveri belt.
He took to classical dance after he watched the performances of two Kalakshetra students and was so inspired that he instantly joined the institution. Bhratanatyam guru Dandayudhapani Pillai was already teaching in Kalakshetra. Under his tutelage, Ramamoorthy became a full fledged artiste.
After Dandayudhapani left Kalakshetra and opened an institution of his own, Ramamoorthy too moved with him and continued learning.
“My guru’s jatis were spellbinding. I continued learning the art from him and gave my arangetram (Ranga Pravesam) in 1947 at R.R. Sabha in Mylapore,” he says.
He continued dancing even after his marriage in 1949. He then had long innings in a dance-drama troupe named ‘Sri Ramakrishna Kripa Amateures’ till 1962. The many reviews in Tamil press of his performances used to refer him as ‘Engineer Ramamoorthy’. His job as an engineer and performing in the evenings went side by side.
He became immensely popular for playing the female lead ‘Sivakami’ in a dance drama titled Sivakamiyin Sapatham.
“My guru was also a choreographer for films made in Gemini Studios. I too acted in a couple films in minor roles and also assisted him for some songs. I had choreographed a dance number for actress Jamuna for her role of Mandodari in Bhookailas,” he recalls.
The family later shifted to Secunderabad in 1970, where he launched his music school Sri Rama Nataka Niketan. Today Rama Nataka Niketan is regarded as one of the purest forms of Bharatantyam art.
As ‘Sivakami’ in Sivakamiyin Sapatham.
The backbone to all these productions is the musical compositions of Prema Ramamurthy a renowned Carnatic vocalist and composer. Ramamoorthy is a good singer too. He learnt Carnatic musicfrom Natesa Iyyer, disciple of Ariyakudi, when he was in Chennai.
He also learnt Kathakali and its makeup techniques. He is a multitalented artiste – theatre personality, dancer, Nattuvanar, makeup artiste and also a painter.
Ramamoorthy had also choreographed and presented many ballets for Doordarshan.
Manjula, Ramamoorthy’s daughter is a great nattuvanar herself, who has been helping her father in all these productions. Ramamoorthy retired in 1978 and widely toured across Spain, Portugal and U.S. Ramamoorthy and his daughter Manjula visited US recently at the invitation of ATA and TANA..
G.S
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