Capturing Mudra

Her passion deepened by a doctorate in Hindu and Vedic philosophy from the Sorbonne, she began to meet and interview dancers and gurus. To identify completely, she began to study dance under Guru Muthuswami Pillai. Since then, she has lived shuttling between France and India, from whose shores she has travelled into the very heart of nritya, from the Chidambaram temple in Chennai, Konark in Orissa to the Kuchipudi village in Andhra Pradesh and the Kathak kingdoms in Benares. Along the way, scholars, gurus and students impressed by her sadhana gradually became friends who have now united in the ongoing exhibition at the IGNCA, from April 9 to 19. And in the reflective silence of the exhibition halls at the IGNCA, almost all who were there could hear the deep reverberations of mridangams, the rhythm of ghungrus and the Vedic birth of dance in an era when this performing art struggles to sustain itself.