Established more than forty years ago in a modest house with a thatched roof, Bharata Kalanjali has been forged through the personal philosophies of the Dhananjayans whose values and tradition have trickled down to every aspect of the school’s operations. Students are trained not just in the discipline of dance but in the grand traditions of the art and the beliefs that constitute it so that for them it becomes a way of life and not just something they do a few times every week.

An unspoken grace pervades every moment of the Dhananjayans as they move around the class instructing the dancers, suggesting corrections in shape and posture. A brief conversation with them makes clear the passion they have for their art, a devotional approach that makes you wonder if art is a medium of prayer, a means of communicating with the divine. Steeped in tradition, every element of the environment around us, be it a traditional painting on the wall or a girl draped in a sari with a bhindi on her forehead or an engraving on an earthen flower pot, seems like a reverberation, a call of devotion and spirituality echoing down the centuries.