Famous Bharatanatyam Dancers Who Shaped the Art Form

The dancers who shaped modern Bharatanatyam include T. Balasaraswati, who carried the hereditary devadasi tradition onto concert stages around the world, and Rukmini Devi Arundale, who founded Kalakshetra in 1936. E. Krishna Iyer championed the dance during its revival. Later artists such as Mrinalini Sarabhai, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Padma Subrahmanyam and Alarmel Valli widened its reach.

Before the famous names: the teachers who kept the dance

Every name in this article stands on the work of people who were rarely famous outside their own community. Devadasi dancers and nattuvanar families taught and performed Sadir for generations. In the early nineteenth century the Tanjore Quartet, four brothers at the court of Serfoji II, gave the repertoire the order it still follows. Our history of Bharatanatyam covers that background. Gurus such as Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai then trained many of the dancers who became well known in the twentieth century.

T. Balasaraswati (1918–1984)

Balasaraswati came from a hereditary family of musicians and dancers. Her grandmother was the celebrated veena artist Veena Dhanammal. She grew up inside the tradition the reformers were trying to change, and she became its most powerful voice.

She was admired above all for her abhinaya, the art of expression. In padams and javalis she could explore a single line of poetry in many different ways, with the music and the meaning closely bound together. She defended shringara, the mood of love, as part of the dance's devotional core rather than something to be removed. Later in life she taught in the United States, including at Wesleyan University, and audiences abroad came to know Bharatanatyam through her. India Post honoured her with a stamp in 2010.

Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986)

Rukmini Devi was not from a hereditary dance family. She grew up close to the Theosophical Society at Adyar and married the theosophist George Arundale. She learnt Bharatanatyam as an adult, training under Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai, and her public performances helped make the dance acceptable to families who had shunned it.

In 1936 she founded Kalakshetra in Madras. There she redesigned the costume and staging and brought together dance, Carnatic music and the visual arts. She also created dance-dramas performed by groups of dancers. The Kalakshetra style that grew from her work is one of the major banis today. She was also known for her work on animal welfare.

E. Krishna Iyer

E. Krishna Iyer was a lawyer and activist in Madras who took up the cause of the dance when it was under attack. He learnt Sadir himself and performed it in female costume to show that it could be presented with dignity. Through the Madras Music Academy he helped bring dance performances onto a respected concert stage. He also argued publicly that the art should be saved even as the social system around it changed.

Dancers who carried Bharatanatyam forward

Mrinalini Sarabhai (1918–2016)

Mrinalini Sarabhai founded the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad in 1949. She took Bharatanatyam well beyond Tamil Nadu and was known for her choreography.

Yamini Krishnamurthy (1940–2024)

Trained at Kalakshetra, Yamini Krishnamurthy became one of the best-known performers of both Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. She performed widely in India and abroad.

Padma Subrahmanyam

Padma Subrahmanyam is both a dancer and a scholar. Her research on the 108 karanas of the Natya Shastra drew on the sculptures in South Indian temples, and she developed a style she calls Bharata Nrithyam.

Leela Samson

Trained at Kalakshetra, Leela Samson is known for the clarity and precision of her dancing. She later served as Director of Kalakshetra and as Chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Alarmel Valli

Alarmel Valli trained in the Pandanallur tradition under Chokkalingam Pillai and Subbaraya Pillai. She is admired for solo work that combines the bani's clean geometry with deeply felt abhinaya. Students of the Pandanallur style often study her dancing closely.

Malavika Sarukkai

Malavika Sarukkai is a leading soloist, known for carefully crafted solo productions and a thoughtful approach to the traditional repertoire.

At a glance

These artists did not always agree. Balasaraswati and Rukmini Devi, in particular, held different views on how the dance should be presented and on the place of shringara in it. Their debate shaped how Bharatanatyam is taught and performed, and students today inherit something from both sides.

What students can learn from these dancers

Reading about great dancers is useful. Watching them is better. Here is what we suggest to students:

• Watch recordings of the same item by different artists. A padam danced by Balasaraswati and by a Kalakshetra-trained artist shows how much room the tradition allows.
• Learn your own lineage. Knowing who taught your teacher, and who taught them, helps you understand why you are asked to hold a line a certain way.
• Attend live recitals. The Margazhi season in Chennai is the easiest time to see senior dancers perform.
• Study abhinaya as seriously as footwork. The artists remembered longest are rarely the fastest. Our article on the nine rasas is a good place to begin.

At Mayura Natyalaya, students learn the Pandanallur style in a lineage traced on our about page. If you are in or near Porur and would like to begin, our Bharatanatyam classes in Porur welcome beginners of all ages from five upwards.