Savitha sastry biography examples
Savitha Sastry
Indian dancer
Savitha Sastry (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian dancer and choreographer best known as an exponent of Bharatanatyam. She is known to experiment with the format of traditional Bharatanatyam by using the techniques of Bharatanatyam to showcase theme-based productions based on novel stories, not based on Indian mythology or religion. Her innovations have been described as 'path breaking' by critics. and she is considered to be a 'renaissance architect' who 'holds the distinction of being the dancer to have brought out a revolution in the way Bharatanatyam is presented after Rukmini Devi Arundale'.
Early life and education
Savitha Subramaniam was born in Hyderabad, and later lived in Mumbai before her family relocated to their home town of Chennai. She started her training in Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of Guru Mahalingam Pillai at the Sri Rajarajeswari Bharatha Natya Kala Mandir in Mumbai, and later with Adyar K Lakshman and the Dhananjayans in Chennai. She did her schooling at the P.S Senior Secondary School in Chennai, and her graduation from Stella Maris College.
In 1986, she featured as the lead dancer in the Tamil film Ananda Tandavam, a production of her GuruAdyar K Lakshman. She pursued her master's degree in the United States, where she majored in neuroscience.
Bharatanatyam
Through the 1980s, 1990s and the first decade of the millennium, Sastry had performed mostly traditional repertoires of Bharatanatyam. She produced and choreographed a few full length presentations such as Krishna: The Supreme Mystic and Purushartha during this phase.
She is credited to have a high degree of technical proficiency in her kinetics of the dance form in being able to deliver it with the grace and technique demanded of Bharatanatyam performers.Syd “God have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of,” she said, quoting Springsteen. Devduta, the character she portrayed, had the choice of continuing to be the prophet, but she took her life one day before her predicted death because doubt clouded her reasoning. Savitha said that she chose a contemporary story because she wanted the younger generation to come and see the performances. “Classical dance can be an edge-of- By Manvi Pant Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Savitha Sastry’s experiments with traditional dancing techniques and her innovations in the field have been widely recognised by critics and peers alike. Known for pushing boundaries, Savitha is a pioneer in taking the dance out of its mythological and religious moulds, and using it to narrate novel stories. “This makes it more accessible to everyone – even those that have no initiation with the dance form,” says the Bengaluru-based neuroscientist and artist. Born in Hyderabad to a Tamil family, Savitha picked up dancing at the age of five and a foray into Bharatanatyam came as a natural choice given her Tamil upbringing. “I was so enamoured by dance that I remember paying our domestic help a princely sum of 25 paise to play Dharmendra to my Hema Malini, and I would dance in our make-believe world with her!” the 50-year-old laughs. As a dance student, she took her first lessons at the Raja Rajeswari Kala Mandal Dance Academy in Mumbai. When she was 12, her family relocated to Chennai, where she continued her dance education. A neuroscientist by education, she lived considerable years in the US where as a weekend occupation she used to teach dancing to students of the Indian diaspora. It was only in the latter half of 2000s that she embraced dancing full-time and emerged as a professional in the field. “I did a lot of traditional repertoires (margams). The years added more gradients to my work as an artist. I started performing dance theatre productions, which were based on my husband and writer AK Srikanth’s stories, and were notable for being novel storylines not based out of mythology or religion. Since 2018, I am making dance films for digital media based on Srikanth’s concepts, and we still do not go anywhere near religion or mythology,” she says. Their first short film The Descent won the Best Short Film Award at the Calcutta International Film Festival 2019. Savitha and Srikant Savitha Sastry
On the 12 of April 2014, at Kamani Auditorium, The Prophet: Destiny, Divinity, Doubt was performed by Savitha Sastry, a well-known Bharatnatyam dancer. The Prophet is a production of Sai Shree Arts, the brainchild of Savitha herself and her husband, AK Srikanth, an author of stories. The format used for this performance was to use a traditional dance form to convey hitherto unheard stories. The performance is embellished with Rajkumar Bharti’s astounding background score, with the use of varied instruments, like the shehnai, sitar, ghatam, melodica and the oboe. When asked to give a message to her audience, Savitha and Srikanth said, “We are so grateful to the audience that came here, and we hope it has made a difference to some, specially the children from an orphanage school who had come. We hope some of them will take the stage some day and tell Srikanth to write about them. Do what you want to do – don’t draw boundaries,” said Srikanth. “Whether it applies to the classical dance system or whatever you are doing, it is more of a life perspective,” added Savitha. “Classical dance is not boring. It is not dated. It can be made into an interesting experience. By being on stage, I do not have any extra enlightenment to give you a message. It is your own unique perspective. For me, it is simply about dancing.” She said that it was entirely a team experience, and that she found it a challenge to play an emotionally charged character.
Savitha Sastry takes on ‘human gods’ in The Prophet
- Rakesh Konni
e-mail: rakeshkonni@gmail.com
Pics: Santosh
October 25, 2013
Bharatanatyam dancer Savitha Sastry, known for her modern productions, premiered ‘The Prophet,’ a contemporary dance drama choreographed by the dancer herself based on an original script by her husband AK Srikanth. Savitha made an impact with the philosophy translated into a simple story and communicated well with good audio visual support. The solo production had some great support from a bunch of artists in music and technical side including sound recording and costumes. Music befitting the tone and theme was composed by Rajkumar Bharathi and as for the aharya part, the costumes were designed by Arun Kumar Tiwari.
The Prophet starts with a note: ‘It is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.’ But, by the time the show comes to a conclusion, we would tend to measure the human gods - both living and dead - in our minds. The Prophet revolves around one of the greatest philosophical questions of all time, ‘Who am I?’ Here, the protagonist ‘Prophet’ Devadhootha (God’s messenger) looks back at the journey of her life on her last day on earth.
The story starts with the dance of devotees. This is one of the very few scenes in which Savitha relied on dance to communicate. Here the followers of the Prophet Devadhootha make a joyous procession to her ashram. Celebrations turn into the singing of a paean at the doorsteps of the ashram. In the scene that follows, Devadhootha does a kind of self introspection and starts to take us through her life’s journey. She believes she was guided by god at various stages of her life starting from her pathetic childhood days, when god’s voice guided her from the torture of an abusive father to a job in a dance academy. There she started off as a cleaner. The dance guru identifies a spark in her and enrolls her as a disciple. Her life makes a mov