Dance, Dancers And Musicians

Author - Dr.V. Raghavan

Published by - Giri Trading

Nandini Ramani, well-known Bharatanatyam exponent has been nurtured in a rich cultural surrounding, inheriting the legacies of two illustrious personalities, one being her own father, the renowned Sanskrit scholar Dr. V. Raghavan and the other being her teacher, the legendary T.Balasaraswati. Nandini has trained in Carnatic Vocal music with Prof. B. Krishnamurthi; and has specialized in Padam and Javali singing under the legendary T.Mukta of the Veena Dhanammal lineage. As a torch-bearer of a renowned Bharatanatyam tradition, Nandini in her five-decade or artistic career, has performed and taught widely in India and abroad.

As a student of Sanskrit Drama from her early years under the scholarly guidance of her father, Dr. Raghavan, Nandini continues acting and directing Sanskrit plays of Samskrita Ranga, founded by her father for promoting Sanskrit Drama production. With her troupe Nandini has participated several times in the prestigious Ujjain Kalidas festival, renowned Oriental conferences and Kaumudi Mahotsav of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi.

Between 1972-82 Nandini served the Bharatanatya school of her teacher at the Music Academy, as a Teaching Assistant; during 1975 – 1993, Nandini was a presenter – compere at the Madras Doordarshan for a wide range of programmes.

For nearly fifteen years, Nandini had been associated with The Hindu newspaper as its Resident Dance Correspondent. Her contribution in the columns of this esteemed newspaper, covered a variety of topics in the field of dance, music and dance-theatre. Nandini is regarded as one of the most communicative dance-writer and respected for her unbiased, analytical and constructive approach to art-criticism. Nandini regularly contributes articles for well known magazines and journals.

As Managing Trustee of Dr. V. Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts, Nandini teaches and continues the dance lineage of her illustrious teacher, in addition to propagating her father’s legacy, and publishing his remaining works.

Nandini served the premier institution Madras Music Academy as its Board Member 1995-98 and as Secretary for two consecutive terms between 1995-2004; She was Board Member of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi from 2004-2009; her active participation at both these renowned institutions resulted resulted in a number of productive endeavours like publication of Journals, Souvenirs, Training programmes and Documentation of invaluable source material of artistic heritage for posterity. Currently Nandini is an Expert-scholar-member of a couple of committees of the Ministry of culture, Govt. of India.