Commemorating 153rd birth anniversary of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Mysore K. Vasudevacharya, Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy and party will present Vasudeva Nritya Manjari, a treatise through Bharatanatyam based on kritis composed by Vasudevacharya at Sri Nadabrahma Sangeetha Sabha on JLB Road in city on May 28 (Monday) at 6 pm.  

She will be accompanied by Vid. Balasubramanya Sharma (vocal), Brahmari Shivaprakash (natuvanga), Vid. Rakesh Sudheer (flute) and Vid. M.R. Hanumanthraju (mridanga). Vidu. S. Bhuvaneshwari will compere the programme which is sponsored by art patron K.V. Murthy.

Artiste profile

Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy  is the Founder/ Director of Vasundhara Performing Arts Centre, Mysuru. She is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer and respected Guru who has contributed to the art form for the past four-and-a-half decades at the highest level.

Born in Moodabidri, to P. Nagaraj and Varada Devi, Vasundhara made her acquaintance with Bharatanatyam at the tender age of four under the guidance of Muralidhar Rao and won a gold medal at the age of five at the State-level competition, which highlighted her potential and prompted her parents to seek out the supervision of late Rajaratnam Pillai, the student of Pandanallur Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, who continued in the role of her Guru.

Vasundhara, through her dedicated training, claimed 1st rank in Vidwat Examination conducted by Karnataka Secondary Education Board and claimed three consecutive gold medals. She was married to late H.S. Doraswamy  and has a son who lives in Australia with her daughter-in-law Meghala Hirasave continuing in her tradition.

In 1988, Vasundhara earned a Ph.D for her study on the correlation between Yoga and Bharatanatyam. She holds a Post-Graduate degree in Folklore and is a consummate exponent of the martial arts of ‘Tang-ta’    and ‘Kalaripayattu.’

Dr. Vasundhara has released a Treatise on the correlation of Yoga and Dance called ‘Natya Yoga Darshana.’

Dr. Vasundhara was honoured with ‘Natya Rani Shantala’ Award — The highest State Award for Dance by the Karnataka State, Natya Jyothi – Australia and Artiste of the Millennium Award, USA, just to name a few.An A-Graded artiste in Doordarshan, she is the only Bharatanatyam danseuse to have been invited from India to perform for ‘World Peace’ conference in Paris under aegis of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) before an audience of 2,500 representing 137 countries.

She gained her initial training in Pandanallur Style of Bharatanatyam. What inspired Dr. Vasundhara to experiment with the boundaries of the classical dance of Bharatanatyam was supposed to have been her strong footing in Yoga and experience of martial arts,  all within the traditional framework, have led to a unique footprint that is today identified as ‘Vasundhara Style.’

[To be continued]