Vannadil Pudiyaveettil Dhananjayan (born 17 April 1939) and Shanta Dhananjayan (born 12 August 1943), also known as the Dhananjayans, are a dancing couple in India who were awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009.

Personal life

V.P Dhananjayan was born into a

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

Poduval family on 17 April 1939 in

Payyanur Payyanur, , is a municipal town and a taluk, a sub-district administrative unit, in the Kannur district of Kerala, India. On 10 March 2018, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated Payyanur as the fifth taluk in the district. Payyan ...

, Kannur District, Kerala, India. He was born into a family with eight children, which struggled to make ends meet. A chance meeting with

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

Master Guru Chandu Panicker of

Kalakshetra Kalakshetra Foundation, formerly simply Kalakshetra, is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in the field of Bharatanatyam dance and Gandharvaveda music. Based in ...

made his father decide purely on instinct to send his son and V.Balagopalan to Kalakshetra under his tutelage. Dhananjayan joined

on 5 October 1953 and was a leading male dance under Rukmini Devi (founder of

) from 1955–1967. He graduated from

with a Post Graduate Diploma in Dance (

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of S ...

and

) with distinction. He also holds a B.A in Economics and Politics. Shanta Dhananjayan was born on 12 August 1943 into a

Nair family in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and traces her ancestry back to

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

from where her family migrated to

. She was a child prodigy. By the time she was 3, her parents were convinced that Shanta would be a dancer. They found in her an inborn response to dance and joy of movement and decided to send her to India for her education. They sent her at age eight to

in June 1952, a year before Dhananjayan, where she later graduated with a Post-Graduate Diploma with distinction in

and also learned

and

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

. She was a leading female dancer at

from 1955–1968. The couple has two sons. The elder, Sanjay, lives in the USA and the younger,

Satyajit {{short description, Indian male given name Satyajit is a common Indian name. The word is a compound of the words for truthful (Satya), and winner (jit). Some noted personalities with the name Satyajit are: *Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) - noted Indian ...

, lives with his wife and son in Chennai, India and is a dancer, choreographer, dance instructor, and automobile photographer.

In Kalakshetra

Were it not for providence in the form of Guru Chandu Panicker, Dhananjayan would have been working in some mundane job in

. Dhananjayan received a scholarship at

to study

, Kathakali, Mridangam and music. Shanta trained in

and music, in addition to other subjects for nearly a decade. They believe that whatever they have been able to achieve is due to the painstaking mentoring of their Gurus Rukmini Devi Arundale and Chandu Panicker as well as various other faculty members of Kalakshetra such as NS Jayalakshmi and Sarada Hoffman. While at Kalakshetra, it was love at first sight for Dhananjayan. Shanta was the first girl he met as he was being escorted into the portals of Kalakshetra by Guru Panicker. Though Shanta was a serious student completely devoted to her dance and music, she had secretly made up her mind, at the age of twelve, to partner Dhananjayan in life. Dhananjayan expressed his desire to marry Shanta when she was eighteen years old, but she left for

after graduation and did not let him know of her consent till after returning to India four years later. They married in 1966 at the

Guruvayoor Guruvayur () is a municipal temple town in Thrissur District, of Kerala State in India. It is a suburban town of Thrissur city, located from Thrissur towards the north-west. It houses the Guruvayur Shri Krishna Temple. It is located at ...

Temple in

Career – Dancing Duo

The Dhananjayans left

in the late 1960s to build a career on their own. During that time, the rich people and aristocrats who could pay to have their own children perform dominated the dance scene in Chennai. Their performances/productions include: *Pandit

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

's Magnum Opus "GHANASHYAM" 1989/90 *National Dance Institute, New York "CHAKRA", with a cast of 1,000 multinational children *A joint venture of Ohio Ballet Co., Cuyahoga Community College and Cleveland Cultural Alliance – Jungle Book Ballet *Choreographer for International Art Festival of Government of Singapore, "Sita Rama Katha" 1986 in the same festival, choreographed dance drama "Sanghamitra" with Singapore Artistes 1994 *Mahaabhaaratham dance drama jointly produced by French Theatre Fluerry & Association Vaani in Reunion French Island 1998, 1999

Bharata Kalanjali

The Dhananjayans started their own dance school ''Bharata Kalanjali'' in 1968 in Adyar, Chennai. It began with a handful of students, and is today a premier academy of dance and music with several hundreds of students and a repertory fashioned out of its own students and graduates.

Bhaaskara

The couple has established an academy of arts at Dhananjayan's birthplace Payyanur in

. They conducted an annual summer Naatya Gurukulam camp which is no longer in operation.

Yogaville

The Dhananjayans have been conducting an annual summer gurukulam camp at the Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, USA, since 1988. Developed by the Natya Adyayana Gurukulam, the camp is an intensive, full-time residential course devoted entirely to the fine arts. Situated in the Virginia countryside, it is attended by Indian-American and international students. The teachers endeavour through it to spread awareness to their students of Indian culture, values, and explicate the philosophy underlying Hinduism.

Honours

Some of the major awards and accolades conferred on the Dhananjayans: *

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, Government of India, 2009

Social issues and politics

Dhananjayan has the reputation of voicing his views and is very forthright in speaking out about social and political issues. His recent publication ''Beyond performing art and culture'', discusses various social and political issues concerning present day India or Bhaaratam, the way he urges everyone to call the country.Beyond Performing Art and Culture: Politico-Socio Aspects, V.P. Dhananjayan. New Delhi, B.R. Rhythms, 2007, xviii, 314 p., ills,

Publications

V.P Dhananjayan is a prolific writer and writes not only on dance but also on social and political issues. His publications include: *''Beyond Performing Art and Culture : Politico-Socio Aspects'', V.P. Dhananjayan. New Delhi, B.R. Rhythms, 2007, xviii, 314 p., ills, . *''Dhananjayan on Indian Classical Dance'', V.P Dhananjayan, B.R Rhythms, 2004, 3rd revised edition,

References

External links

{{Authority control Dancers from Kerala Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Performers of Indian classical dance Teachers of Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam exponents Kalakshetra Foundation alumni Art duos People from Kannur district Married couples Women educators from Kerala 20th-century Indian educators 20th-century Indian dancers Educators from Kerala 20th-century Indian women artists Women artists from Kerala Indian female classical dancers 20th-century women educators Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award