Saroja Vaidyanathan, who received the Padma Shri (2002) and the Padma Bhushan (2013), was an exponent of which dance?

Explanation

Saroja Vaidyanathan (1937-2020) was one of the most respected Bharatanatyam dancers, gurus and choreographers of India. She received the Padma Shri in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2013 for her contribution to Bharatanatyam.

Saroja Vaidyanathan was born in Bellary, in present-day Karnataka, and grew up in Chennai. She trained in Bharatanatyam at the Saraswathi Gana Nilayam in Chennai and later learnt from the great guru Kattumannarkoil Muthukumaran Pillai. She also studied Carnatic music, which helped her as a choreographer and composer. In 1974, she founded the Ganesa Natyalaya in New Delhi, which became one of the leading Bharatanatyam schools in North India and has trained a large number of dancers, including her daughter-in-law, Rama Vaidyanathan, who is herself a well-known dancer. She choreographed many solo pieces and large dance-dramas, often based on Indian epics, poetry and the works of Tamil and Sanskrit poets, and she composed music for many of them. She also wrote books on Bharatanatyam, explaining its technique and history for students and general readers. Her work helped make Delhi an important centre for Bharatanatyam, a dance that had developed in Tamil Nadu. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and many other honours.

Bharatanatyam is the classical dance of Tamil Nadu. It developed from Sadir, the temple dance of the devadasis, and was organised in the 19th century by the Tanjore Quartet. In the 1930s, E. Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi Arundale revived it and brought it to the public stage. It is known for its half-sitting posture (aramandi), its precise footwork, its clear hand gestures (mudras) and its rich expressions. Other famous Bharatanatyam dancers include Balasaraswati, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Padma Subrahmanyam, Alarmel Valli, Leela Samson and Geeta Chandran.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Kathak is the classical dance of North India, linked with Birju Maharaj.
• ✗Odissi is the classical dance of Odisha, linked with Kelucharan Mohapatra.
• ✗Mohiniyattam is the classical dance of Kerala, linked with Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma.