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Radhika
Shurajit
Radhika Shurajit, a famous dancer who has been dancing for a long time without changing the dance grammar.
'Thaka Dimi Tha', a popular Bharatanatyam show on
Jaya TV, was conceived, visualised and directed by her. The show is
telecast on Sundays at 8 a.m. and the show has been anchored by many cine personalities like Bhanupriya, Shobana and
Sukanya. It may be stated that the show has taken Bhartanatyam to the doorsteps of the
common man.
"I was born with two sisters. Normally, parents are dejected when three girls are born in a row. However, my parents said they had given birth to three
goddesses
(Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Parvathi)," Radhika stated.
Radhika's mother had keen interest in Bharatnatyam, but she was not able to learn it, so she passed on her desire to her daughters.
When the Dhananjayans withdrew from
Kalakshetra and started their
institutions the sisters learnt from them.
The trio learnt dance for nearly
25 years from their guru
Dhananjayans. Radhika and her sisters learnt all the techniques from
the Dhananjayans. They performed in various places before their arangetram. "My mother took us to Dhananjayan for learning the beautiful art of dance, but not for any arangetram. But our guru Dhananjayan insisted that we should perform an arangetram, which took place at
R R Sabha in the presence of Kalamandir Viswanathan," Radhika recalled.
The sisters were named as 'Trio
Sisters' by their guru Dhananjayan. They have an experience of dancing on more than 1,000 platforms. They have also
danced in many foreign countries including Sri Lanka, Nigeria,
Germany, Russia, the US and the Gulf countries.
"We performed at the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in which 36 countries participated. We were adjudged the best out of the
36. This made us proud," Radhika said.
They have formed a dance school 'Thrayee - School of Bharathanatyam'. Radhika is also a disciple of Kalanidhi Narayanan. She has presented many lecture-demonstrations and art workshops for Spic-Macay, cosmopolitan organisations and educational institutions. She has choreographed many theatre productions with professional theatre groups. She has conceived and choreographed many new and innovative productions. To name a few:
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'Pancha Nayika' - Dance ballet on five mythological heroines.
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Murali Nrithya Maadhuri -
Dance feature based on compositions of Dr M Balamuralikrishna.
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'Nrithya Bharatheeyam' -
Dance of India - classical, folk and tribal.
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'Kurinji Pookkal' - Based on Sangam literature.
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'Nizhalgal - Nijangal' -
Ballet on medical scan techniques.
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'Celluloid classics' -
Based on classical film numbers.
Radhika is the advisory council member of
the Madras chapter of International Dance Alliance, New York. She has been a resource expert at Central Production Centre (CPC) Doordarshan - New Delhi, in the production of music and dance programmes.
She has directed and choreographed dance sequences for several international television networks like
BBC, TV channels in the US, South America and
Singapore. She is currently working towards taking art to
the common people and specialising in adapting 'Dance through the Lens',
specialised in face-to-face interactive programmes and arts
workshops at universities, colleges and social
organisations.
Radhika has interacted, directed and choreographed productions with several international dance companies in the US and other countries, presented exclusive lecture and demonstration on ships like Queen
Elizabeth Semester at Sea and several other international ships and for organisations like
Rotary, Rotaract, Lions
Clubs, Lioness Club, Round Table and
Jaycees.
She has produced and presented many special programmes for AIR Chennai. Currently, she is working on adapting modern contemporary literature - Pudhu Kavidhai
- for Bharatanatyam.
This famous dancer is also the vice-president of Uthsav
Academy of Fine Arts and has organised several shows like Meenakshi Seshadri's
'Classic Celluloid' and L Karaikudi Mani's 'Laya Priya' by the Battery Dance
Company, New York.
She entered the silver screen with Suhasini Maniratnam's
'Indra'. She has worked for more than 12 movies like 'Azhagi', 'Thendral', 'Swarnamukhi',
'Ivan', 'Solla Marantha Kadhai', etc. Radhika was awarded the best choreographer for the song
'Nila Kaygiradhu....' in 'Indra'.
She has been awarded many titles including
Bharat Kalachar's 'Kala
Seva Bharathi' from the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Ramamohan Rao, prestigious
'honorary citizen' award from Oklahoma State University, US, best guru award from the Music Academy, Chennai, and many more.
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