Indian dancer Ragasudha Vinjamuri is taking Bharatanatyam abroad with her performances in the British Parliament

London-based Ragasudha Vinjamuri — the first Indian artiste to perform more than 15 times in the House of Commons and the House of Lords — lives and breathes bharatanatyam. Much like her guru, the legendary Kuchipudi dancer and research scholar Uma Rama Rao, Ragasudha too has been setting records in the field, not just in India, but in the United Kingdom as well. Her performance in the British Parliament also got her a place in the Limca Book of Records, this year. “My tryst with the British Parliament began in 2014, when I was invited to perform an Adhyatma Ramayana Keertana on Lord Shiva. I also performed on music theory and how it affects humans body. A topic so different from the usual themes we cover in bharatanatyam required me to do immense research, including how blood vessels react to various genres of music,” she recollects. 

While conveying her message through dance, Ragasudha adopts a unique narrative that goes beyond conventional boundaries, yet reflecting an uncompromising classical integrity. One of the most challenging performances, she confesses, has been on Ayurveda, considering the history attached to it. “I get about 45 days to prepare for my performance. But for a topic like Ayurveda, there’s never enough time. I remember reading texts like the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita (an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine, surgery and Ayurveda), which were written 3,000 years ago, much before the English medicine adopted surgeries. In this performance, I gave a glimpse of the history by portraying some of the actions in my dance,” she shares. Complemented by instrumental music or chants, Ragasudha presented Sagara Manthana (churning of the ocean), the science behind Lord Shiva as Neelkanth and the story of the father of Ayurveda, Dhanvantri, followed by the ancient Ayurvedic practices of using lotus stem for surgery. “My audience is usually non-Indian, so they’re always very curious to know how such themes can be blended with bharatanatyam. Not many know that the history of Ayurveda can be dated back to 5,000 BC. Indian classical dance itself is highly respected and enjoyed here. When combined with a theme like Ayurveda, it gets a lot more attention and appreciation as well,” adds Ragasudha, who moved to London 12 years ago. 

Born into a family of performers, it wasn’t surprising that Ragasudha too started to learn dance at the age of eight, under the tutelage of Visakhapatnam-born Uma Rama Rao, who has also trained Kuchipudi danseuse Alekhya Punjala. Although she began learning at the Sri Tyagaraja Government College of Music & Dance in Hyderabad, she soon shifted to Lasya Priya Nrutyaniketan Kuchipudi Dance Institute in her teens. “All that I am today can certainly be dedicated to my guru Uma Rama Rao. Starting at a young age under her guidance gave me a strong foundation and a lot of theoretical knowledge in the subject as well. Even after I moved to London, I remember talking to her about a few ideas and she’d always give me valuable suggestions that only helped me represent bharatanatyam in the truest form,” says Ragasudha, beaming. Along with her accolades abroad, she was also shortlisted for the prestigious Asian Women Achievers awards under the Art and Culture category and was given the title Natya Kala Sudha in Chennai, earlier this year. The award was given by veteran singer Padma Bhushan P Susheela, in an event jointly organised by the World Telugu Federation and Sri Kala Sudha. She also performed at the World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad in December 2017.