Rukmini Devi : A Life

On 30 December 1935, thirty-one year old Rukmini Devi created history with her performance of Sadir, later known as Bharata Natyam, which had until then been confined to temple precincts and was the preserve of devadasis. A celebrated artiste and dancer, she was also a Theosophist, a composer of acclaimed dance-dramas, an educationist, an animal welfare and child rights activist, and a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. This rich biography illuminates her many lives.

Rukmini?s early life was in the districts of Madras presidency where her father, an engineer, was posted, and it took many dramatic turns: her marriage in 1920 to George Arundale, a Theosophist and family friend, caused public outrage, particularly among the Madras brahmins. She was closely associated with Annie Besant, who became her mentor, and her meeting with Anna Pavlova inspired her to learn dance. Rukmini went on to establish Kalakshetra, an academy of arts, in 1936, which grew and flourished, and is renowned to this day for its classicism in dance training and performance?a tribute to her skill as an institution builder.

Leela Samson is a dancer, a teacher, a writer and a choreographer of Bharata Natyam. She has been deeply influenced by the philosophy and the work of Rukmini Devi. In 1995, she formed a dance group called Spanda, to review the traditional vocabulary of Bharata Natyam?both pure dance and interpretive dance?and its findings were seen as path-breaking by the critics. She has been the subject of two documentary films, Sanchari and The Flowering Tree.

She is the recipient of the Sanskriti and the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards and has been honoured with the Padma Shri and Nritya Choodamani. In May 2005, Leela took over as director of the Kalakshetra Foundation. She loves music, books and animals.