#PastForward: Danseuse Madhu Nataraj continues to define how Bengaluru moves…

Madhu Nataraj has been one of the most quietly radical forces in Indian dance. A kathak exponent, contemporary choreographer, artistic director and restless explorer of movement, she occupies a rare cultural position: deeply rooted in tradition while fearlessly stretching the boundaries of form.

Madhu Nataraj talks about her two love stories — dance and Bengaluru!

In Bengaluru — her chosen home and artistic laboratory — Madhu has helped shape an entire generation’s understanding of both kathak and contemporary dance, becoming as much a custodian of legacy as a maker of new worlds.

To understand Madhu’s journey is to step into a life where art was both inheritance and rebellion. As the daughter of the legendary Maya Rao, she grew up surrounded by maestros, philosophers and culture-shifters. “By the time I was fifteen, I was saturated,” she recalls. “People would say ‘haan, tumhare khoon mein hai’ — it’s in your blood, you’re going to be a dancer. And I would say no.” Fiercely resistant to being defined by lineage, she tried everything else — commerce, journalism, theatre, even modelling —  carving her own path through sheer contrariness.

But movement, as it turned out, had other plans. Her moment of return arrived unexpectedly, at the American Dance Festival’s first and only India edition in 1990. A chance entry into an ‘improvisation’ class — led by a seemingly unassuming American judge — would become the turning point. Tasked with creating twelve movements using only the joints of one index finger, Madhu found herself inadvertently revealing her innate choreographic instinct. What followed was a revelation. “If with three joints you can create twelve movements,” her instructor told her, “imagine what the whole body can do. Will you ever run out of movement?”

The idea struck like thunder. She realised she wasn’t merely creating movement — she could choreograph her own future. In a rush of clarity, she telephoned her mother from Delhi and asked, with breathless urgency, to join her choreography institute. Maya Rao’s response has since become part of the family’s lore: “Are you ready to choose creative satisfaction over monetary benefits? Only then dance.” Madhu, even at nineteen, was. She stepped into the world of dance knowing fully well that her peers might become CEOs while she chose the unpredictable, often underfunded path of the arts. But she has never once looked back.

Her early years were a whirlwind of rigorous training and relentless work. Mornings in yoga and martial arts, afternoons at her choreography course, evenings split between kathak class and journalism assignments. She travelled across Bengaluru on her bike, covering sixty-three city schools as a young teacher, before plunging nightly into rehearsal. At twenty-three, she toured the United States and found herself on the cusp of joining a prestigious contemporary dance institution in New York. Yet she declined. “I missed the fragrance and the stench of India,” she laughs. More importantly, she knew her vocabulary had to grow from her own cultural soil.

She returned home, immersed herself in kathak, yoga, kalari and other Indian movement practices and in 1995 founded STEM (Space.Time.Energy.Movement) Dance Kampni — Bengaluru’s first contemporary dance company. Her debut performances at Chowdiah Memorial Hall sold out within two days. She had no money, no safety net and no idea how the city would respond. It responded with love. And it hasn’t stopped.

Today, Bengaluru is often called the contemporary dance capital of India, a shift Madhu has witnessed and shaped from the front row. What began as an environment suspicious of experimentation is now a city brimming with curiosity, courage and creative hunger. “When I started STEM, people asked why a good kathak dancer was standing on her head talking about depression or sexuality,” she recalls. “The community may not have approved, but the audience always did.” That, she says, is the greatest gift of Bengaluru: it is open-minded, supportive and generous with artistic space.

Much has changed since those early days. Kathak schools have multiplied; contemporary companies have sprouted; the city’s cultural calendar is now dizzying in its abundance. Yet Madhu is clear-eyed about the landscape: “With the volume and velocity of events today, there is also mediocrity.” Still, she remains hopeful. A thriving arts ecosystem, she believes, must hold both abundance and excellence in tension. As STEM turns thirty, Madhu reflects on why she has never left the city. “Delhi is too political. Mumbai is too commercial. Bengaluru lets you choose your pace. The city doesn’t dictate the artiste — you get to dance with your art.” And in doing so, she has helped a whole city learn to move differently.

Email: romal@newindianexpress.com

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