The classical dance community is meeting celebrate the birth centenary of guru Thanjai M. Arunachalam Pillai, a celebrated guru. The event is on Dec. 15 at the TN Govt. Music College in R. A. Puram.
Pillai founded the Sri Shanmugananda Natya Palli and groomed people who have wellknown dancers like Hemamalini . The event is jointly hosted by the guru’s family, Sri Shanmugananda Bharathanatya Palli, Sri Raja Rajeswari Natya Kala Mandir, Prayathnam, ABHAI and the venue sponsor is Tamilnadu Government Music College.
Wellknown guru Kalyanasundaram Pillai is leading the centenary committee and will deliver the welcome address . Dr B. M. Sundaram (musicologist & author) will preside over the function.
Other guests at this event will be Vice- Chancellor of the Tamilnadu J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts university – Dr S. Sowmya, dance guru Chitra Visweswaran, Nandini Ramani (executive member – Sangeet Natak Academy), Revathy Ramachandran (director, Kalakshetra Foundation) and B. Hemanathan (deputy director, Department of Art and Culture).
The late guru had three talented sons – all in the same field – Hemnath, the eldest was a nattuvanar who retired from the Music College; Natarajan, the second was a mridangist who retired after serving as Principal, Music College and the third son, Chandrashekar was a senior lecturer of mridangam at Annamalai University, Chidambaram.
Thanjai Arunachalam Pillai‘s sishyas and their sishyas are now all over the world.
At the event, an audio visual on the guru’s career will be screened and a group of dancers will perform too.
— Photo courtesy: The Hindu
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