MALAVIKA SARUKKAI
Exponent of Bharata Natyam

www.artindia.net is privileged to present this page on MALAVIKA SARUKKAI as part of its series on outstanding artists of India.

Intense, extraordinary and luminous are the qualities that distinguish Malavika Sarukkai’s dancing. With her artistic mastery and technique she commands a presence on the world stage. She is acclaimed globally for her creative dance choreographies, which transport the viewer to the heart beat of dance, taking dance beyond specific geographies.

As a passionate path breaking dancer from India, she has contributed a significant and large body of work. Her collaborative productions have synergised through dialogues with artists from different media – poets, musicians, painters, sculptors and contemporary writers. These interactions bring to her choreographic interpretations the incandescent beauty of the classical language and the energised articulation of a contemporary mind. Malavika Sarukkai’s work is celebrated by critics, connoisseurs and the general public. More recently Malavika Sarukkai brought out her first dance DVD entitled – ‘Vaahini – the Sacred and the Worldly’. This is being marketed by ‘Times Music’ as their first venture in the world of dance.

Malavika Sarukkai has participated in major Dance Festivals in India; Festivals of India in USA, France, UK, Japan , Brazil ; International Festivals and Cultural Events at Jacob‘s Pillow, UCLA, Asia Society and the Smithsonian Institution in USA; Theatre de la Ville, France; Edinburgh Main Festival among many others.

Recognition:
Padmashree and the Sangeet Natak Academy Award from The Government of India. Filmed by BBC /WNET, ARTE, Cinematheque de la dance. Feature films – Samarpanam and Malavika Sarukkai – Dancing Life made in India and abroad.

“A goddess dances at Edinburgh…”
~Alice Bain, The Guardian

”Each performance of Malavika Sarukkai is an event… She is without any doubt the most expressive of contemporary Indian dancers…”
~Rene Sirvin, Le Figaro, Paris

‘Easily the most accomplished Bharata Natyam dancer today…An artiste who has worked and polished her art to such perfection that it has become an extension of her body…it just flows out of her like intimate conversation.”
~S.Kalidas, India Today