Vazhuvoor Style Of Dance

Kalaimanram propogates the vazhuvoor style of bharathanatyam.Elagance and grace are the hallmark of this style which originated in the village of vazhuvoor.It was made popular by vazhuvoor Ramaihpillai who was the first from this tradition to move to madras or Chennai the city with most bharathanatyam activity in India.

Popular dancers such asVidhya subramaniyam,along with Kamala Lakshman,Padma Subramaniyam ,Chitra Viswesvaran have increased the exposure of this style. Specially in Srilanka ”kalabhooshanam” shrimathy Thiripurasundari Yoganantham also learnt Bharathanatyam under the able guidance of the famous late “Natya kala kesari”,”Isai Perarignar” ”Padmashri” Vazhuvoor Ramaiah pillai.

The Vazhuvoor style is accredited with introducing the aspect of entering from the wings as opposed of starting a dance piece on stage.The dance steps are crisp and intricate but combined with grace beautiful eye movements.Poses are often introduced in the dance pieces especially in the thillana to add space in time.The Jatis or nritta units have more korvais or gaps than usual to add a sense of time being suspended giving the dance an exciting quality.The body from the waist up is slanted slightly forward to give more dimension to the body.The adavus or dance units are done smoothly without too many jerky movements to give an impression of effortlessness and elegance and beautiful leaps mark every jati.Stylized expressions and there is no obviousness in the presentation.The hands,eyes,and expressions are used in unison to express eloquently.Lasya,or grace is predominant in this style.Traditionally,a performance in the vazhuvoor style begins with a thodaya mangalam in praise of lord Gnana sabesar of Vazhuvoor.