An exhibition on Bharatanatyam exponent Chitra Visweswaran’s artistic journey

A nine-day accumulation was precocious held successful honour of Bharatanatyam exponent Chitra Visweswaran, marking her 75th year. Organised successful collaboration with the Alliance Française of Chennai, the lawsuit traced her illustrious creator travel spanning implicit 7 decades, showcasing her multifaceted contributions arsenic a performer, choreographer and teacher.

The accumulation titled ‘What anchored me, Let Me Fly’, curated by Bhooma Padmanabhan, featured a postulation of uncommon black-and-white and colour photographs documenting the elder dancer’s beingness from 1950 to 2025. These captured moments from her puerility and with her family, her grooming nether Thiruvidaimarudur A. Rajalakshmi and Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, and her galore planetary performances. Also connected show were her costumes, jewellery, awards and philharmonic instruments specified arsenic the santoor, tambura, and guitar played by her precocious husband, R. Visweswaran. Adding a ocular and affectional dimension, continuous screenings of video excerpts from her landmark productions, including the celebrated Viralimalai Kuravanji, performed with Padma Subrahmanyam and Sudharani Raghupathy, offered visitors a glimpse into her originative universe.

Though trained successful some the Thanjavur and Vazhuvoor traditions, Chitra Visweswaran went connected to make her ain distinctive style, contiguous referred to arsenic Vichitra Bani which was unveiled astatine the exhibition. The bani recognises the immense capableness of creation arsenic a mean of connection — physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Through decades of show and teaching, she has guided generations of dancers who proceed to transportation guardant her aesthetic ideals and creator philosophy. Her enactment reminds america that Bharatanatyam, portion grounded successful tradition, is besides a surviving connection of thought and feeling.

Over the 9 days, six evenings featured peculiar programmes, including an illustrated speech by filmmaker Sharada Ramanathan, a creation tribute by Shobana to her guru, Dancers from ABHAI (Priya Murle, Roja Kannan, Priya Dixit, Mahalakshmi Ashwin, Padmalakshmi Suresh, Binesh Mahadevan, Nithish Kumar, Iswarya and Sruthi Janaki) presented idiosyncratic offerings and Chitra Visweswaran shared idiosyncratic anecdotes and memories during a speech with Shreya Nagarajan Singh, and Sukanya Ravindhar. Sachchidanand Joshi, member-secretary of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Delhi attended the event.

The finale featured performances by Anita Ratnam, Narthaki Nataraj, Sathyanarayana Raju, and MVN Murthy. Senior disciples Sukanya Ravindhar and Anusuya concluded the bid with a moving show to 1 of Chitra Visweswaran’s favourite Bengali songs.

The lawsuit was conceptualised and organised by Sukanya Ravindhar and supported by SNS Arts Development Consultancy.

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