A PRIZED LIFE: Sreelakshmi has won many awards and prizes over the years for her prowess.
By Umer Nangiana
Once on the stage, she floats in a fluid movement; the bodily contortions correspond to her facial expressions in a perfect synchronisation. Attired in a Kuchipudi dancer’s costume with thick make up and moving like a professional, she appears to obscure her age. She is only 13.
Sreelakshmi Suresh Kumar, a Grade 8 student at Birla Public School, aspires to be a medical practitioner, who in the meanwhile, has fallen in love with a distinct yet traditional art form of storytelling. It is classical Indian dance mostly choreographed around stories from Hindu mythology.
And within just seven years of starting her learning process, she has considerably mastered the art of putting herself into the roles of different characters in these stories and then pulling them off with admirable perfection.
With every new step that she learns and every new character from one of the countless such stories that she plays, Sreelakshmi falls deeper in love with dance. For her, it will be a struggle now to choose her career path from her initial aspirations to become a doctor and her acquired inspiration to keep performing dances.
“I was 6 when I first started dancing. I have always been interested in doing so. It is my passion and I would love to adopt it as a career. I take my inspiration from my teacher Kalamandalam Devi and the way she teaches me moves me to go further,” Sreelakshmi tells Community in an interview after her recent performance at 2015 festival of the Skill Development Centre (SDC) here.
Demonstrating the talents of a gifted dancer, she has already won multiple accolades from different big and smalls platforms. She has won Best Performer Award in Birla Fest 2014 besides 1st Prize in Mohiniyattam (a dance form), folk dance, 2nd Prize in Bharatanatyam (classical dance form) and 2nd Prize in Light Music among others during 2014.
At the SDC festival, she again won the hearts of the audience where both her parents and her siblings were present to watch her. Sreelakshmi’s family fully supports her ambitions and her parents have left it to her to choose a career path.
“The first priority, of course, is to complete her studies and then she is free to choose her career path. She actually wanted to become a doctor and I think if she performs well in studies she will become one, but at the same time if she would want to choose art or dance as profession, we have no objection to that as well,” her father Suresh Kumar tells Community.
The younger dancer charmed the audience at SDC festival by playing even the villainous role of the demon Hiranyakashipu in the story of Narasimha performed with her co-dancers on the stage. She was smooth in her movements and confidently, pulled off the challenging character. Her facial expressions complemented by the traditional Carnatic music playing in the background told the story with complete coherence.
“This dance form is Kuchipudi and it comes from Andhra Pradesh. I have also learnt the other dance forms such as Mohiniyattam, Bharatanatyam and Kathak,” says Sreelakshmi. Different dance forms come from different areas of India and are particularly popular in South.
The young classical dancer had started dancing by emulating simple dance moves from seeing such dances on television. “Without knowing what dance form it was, I used to do dance at home and my parents saw that I was interested so they got me admission here at SDC,” says Sreelakshmi.
“For the first few days, I could not find interest in it here. I started telling my parents my legs were paining and stuff like that. But then, my father encouraged me a lot and pushed me to continue. Gradually, I started finding my rhythm and started taking classes regularly,” she adds.
She says it is the diversity of interesting stories that all these dance forms are based on which attracts her the most and she finds fun in learning all the moves.
“Not only in this dance (Kuchupudi) but in all other dances as well, I like the stories and I love dancing. I wanted to take it up as a career as I feel very passionate about it,” she adds.
Her first performance was in the 4th standard and she won the 3rd position. She continued learning and started winning bigger prizes. In Grade 7, she became the best performer.
In the Sanskriti Inter School Competition, she received individual championship and then, in the ICC (Indian Cultural Centre) Inter School Competition she won the second spot for Mohiniyattam and Bharatanatyam forms of dances, but the first prize for Kichupudi and folk.
She says when she is dancing the whole spiritual philosophy and the idea behind every story in the dance influences her. “I get completely involved and I get into my character. And that is how I get my expressions,” says Sreelakshmi.
Her most personal favourite dance has been the one where she played a Devi.
“And it was very interesting. It was a Devi’s story. Normally, we played Kuchipudi on a plate and a pot on our head but nowadays it is not used much. And also the costumes were very different in this dance from all others,” says Sreelakshmi.
The costume changes according to the dance form and so is the backup that changes to portray a certain character. The dancers have to take extra classes before a dance performance on stage and rehearse it until they think they have achieved perfection.
The young dancer says she has somehow managed to find time for her studies, hobbies including music and art besides her love for dancing. She also sings, draws and paints, and makes jewellery from paper and terracotta.
She has participated in various cultural programmes conducted by Ministry of Environment such as Eid celebration, Labour Day, National day and other events organised by the Ministry of Heritage, ICC and its affiliated organisations in Qatar, Independence Day and Republic Day.
