ANJANA RAJAN
Bharata Natyam

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Anjana Rajan was initiated into Bharata Natyam in Geneva, Switzerland where she lived as a child. Her teachers here included Smt. Malik, Smt. Rajamani and Smt Padmini Mohan-Durr.

On completion of her schooling, her quest for the authentic drew Anjana to Kalakshetra, Madras, where she pursued a rigorous course of studies in Bharata Natyam and allied subjects. At Kalakshetra she had the good fortune of coming into contact with the inspiring founder director, Rukmini Devi Arundale, whose emphasis on the divinity of all arts had a deep influence on her.

Anjana has taught Bharata Natyam and folk dances to children and adults and conducts mime and movement sessions for theatre artists. She is a visiting professor at New Delhi’s National School of Drama and the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, where she is invited to conduct practical and theory classes related to the Natya Shastra and abhinaya (the stylized technique of acting and emoting used in classical dance forms).

She has given recitals and lecture demonstrations of Bharata Natyam in India and other countries and has choreographed a number of folk, classical and contemporary dance items for group and solo presentation. Between 2000 and 2002, she collaborated with Glasgow-based visual artist Ranjana Thapalyal on the multi-disciplinary project Talacchanda. The project not only juxtaposed visual arts and Indian performance traditions but also sought to find parallels and points of contrast between the ancient and modern views of life, and how these are reflected in a society’s arts.

Talacchanda was premiered at the British Council, New Delhi, in December 2000, and subsequently traveled to Edinburgh (Out of the Blue gallery, 2001) and Glasgow (The Tramway, 2002).

Anjana’s articles on classical dance and music have been published in national dailies and journals such as The Pioneer, The Statesman, The Hindu, Pulse Dance and Horizons (journal of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations) among others. Based in New Delhi, she is currently a Principal Correspondent/Chief Sub-Editor with the English language daily The Hindu, where her duties include feature writing, interviews and dance criticism.

In 2006 she was honoured by the Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, as an outstanding critic and artiste.

After spending her formative years in the United States and Europe and later coming under the spell of traditional India woven by Rukmini Devi Arundale and Kalakshetra, Anjana perceives two distinct streams in her personality: the Eastern and the Western. The two cultures she has imbibed have widened her outlook and enabled her to draw a unique personal satisfaction from her study of dance.