| Kalakshetra Foundation | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
 | |
Besant Nagar, Chennai, India | |
| Coordinates | 12°59′17″N80°15′54″E / 12.9881°N 80.26500°E /12.9881; 80.26500 |
| Information | |
| Established | January 1936; 89 years ago (January 1936) |
| Founder | Rukmini Devi Arundale |
| Chairman | S. Ramadorai[1] |
| Director | Suresh Kumar Chikkala |
| Website | www |
Kalakshetra Foundation, formerly simplyKalakshetra,[2] is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values inIndian art and crafts, especially in the field ofBharatanatyam dance andGandharvaveda music. Based inChennai, India, the academy was founded in January 1936 byRukmini Devi Arundale and her husbandGeorge Arundale. Under Arundale's guidance, the institution achieved national and international recognition for its unique style and perfectionism. In 1962, Kalakshetra moved to a new 40-hectre campus inBesant Nagar, Chennai.[3]
In January 1994, an Act of theParliament of India recognised the Kalakshetra Foundation as an "Institute of National Importance."[4][5] The current Chairman of Kalakshetra is S. Ramadorai[6] and the current director is Revathi Ramachandran.[7]
Kalakshetra, later known as the Kalakshetra Foundation, was established byRukmini Devi Arundale, along with her husband,George Arundale, a well-knowntheosophist, inAdyar, Chennai, in 1936. She invited not only the best students but also noted teachers, musicians and artists to be a part of this institution.[8] In 1944, theUniversity of Madras granted its affiliation for conducting diploma courses in Music, Dance and Painting & Crafts.
Year-long celebrations, including lectures, seminars and festivals marked her 100th birth anniversary, on 29 February 2004, at Kalakshetra and elsewhere in many parts of the world.[9] Also on 29 February, a photo exhibition on her life opened at the Lalit Kala Gallery in New Delhi, and PresidentA. P. J. Abdul Kalam released a photo-biography, written and compiled bySunil Kothari, with a foreword by former presidentRamaswamy Venkataraman.[10][11][12] In 2016, marking its 80th year, the Kalakshetra Foundation held a 'Remembering Rukmini Devi' festival of music and dance.[13]
Having studied thePandanallur style for three years, in 1936Rukmini Devi Arundale started working on developing her own, Kalakshetra, style ofBharatanatyam. She introduced group performances and staged various Bharatanatyam-based ballets.
.jpg)
The Kalakshetra style is noted for its angular, straight, ballet-like kinesthetics, and its avoidance ofRecakas and of the uninhibited throw (Ksepa) of the limbs.[citation needed]
According to Sankara Menon (1907–2007), who was her associate from Kalakshetra's beginnings,[14] Rukmini Devi raised Bharatanatyam to a puritan art form, divorced from its recently controversial past by "removing objectionable elements" (mostly, theSringara, certain emotional elements evocative of the erotic, such as hip, neck, lip and chest movements) from thePandanallur style, which was publicly criticized by Indian dancerTanjore Balasaraswati (1918–1984) and other representatives ofTamil Nadu's traditional Isai Velalar culture. Love outside parameters considered "chaste" was not to be portrayed. Balasaraswati said that "the effort to purify Bharatanatyam through the introduction of novel ideas is like putting a gloss on burnished gold or painting the lotus". Lawyer and classical artistE. Krishna Iyer (1897–1968) said about Rukmini Devi, "There is no need to say that before she entered the field, the art was dead and gone or that it saw a renaissance only when she started to dance or that she created anything new that was not there before".
In December 2022, allegations of sexual abuse in the campus began to surface after former directorLeela Samson wrote a social media post accusing a teacher of harassing and molesting students, but hadn't specified the name of the teacher. In the following months, over a hundred students of Kalakshetra Foundation's Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts accused senior faculty member, Hari Padman, of sexual harassment. The accusations spanned a number of years. Padman was exonerated following an internal investigation, and Kalakshetra Foundation issued a gag order preventing students and staff from discussing the allegations.[15] On 21 March 2023, theNational Commission for Women began investigating the allegations,[16] but closed the investigation shortly, after a victim denied any sexual harassment during an enquiry.[17] On 30 March, the students began protests against the inaction of the Kalakshetra authorities, by walking out of a routine morning prayer when Padman walked in.[18] The protests prompted a response from the Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterM. K. Stalin,[19] after which anFIR was registered against Padman by the Tamil Nadu police. The Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women also launched an investigation and received over 90 written complaints regarding various issues faced by the students of the foundation. Padman was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on 3 April 2023.[20] In response, Padman's wife Divya Hari Padman filed a counter complaint against the victim and two teachers working in the institute.[21] Amidst the sexual harassment allegations, students also raised complaints about mismanagement by the foundation director Revathi Ramachandran, referring to the coverup of a food poisoning outbreak in November 2021.[22]
 | This article's list of alumnimay not follow Wikipedia'sverifiability policy. Pleaseimprove this article by removing names that do not have independentreliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriatecitations.(February 2018) |
Notable alumni includeRadha Burnier[24],Amala Akkineni,[25]Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay,Sanjukta Panigrahi,C.V. Chandrasekhar,Dhananjayans,Adyar K. Lakshman,Jayashree Narayanan,Kalakshetra Vilasini,Leela Samson,[26]Satyavati Motiram Sirsat,Jaya Thyagarajan,Devoleena Bhattacharjee, andAnanda Shankar Jayant.[27]
| Institutes of National Importance | |
|---|---|
| Central universities | |
| State universities |
|
| Deemed to be universities |
|
| State private universities | |
| List of educational institutions by district | |
