About the Guru
Smt. SWETHA RAGHURAM ,a Bharathnatyam dancer/Guru/Creative head of Thantra school of arts, Fremont, CA. She is a senior disciple of Guru Kalaimamani Sri R Muralidharan and Smt. Chitra Muralidharan in Chennai, India and Dr. Parvathy ravi in California. She has performed all around India and holds a Guinness record with her guru Madurai R Muralidharan.
She is a very passionate Indian folk artist and singer. Goal and Purpose of THANTRA is to spread the ancient art of south India Bharathnatyam to younger generation and share the knowledge.
Bharathanatyam
Bharatanatyam is the most popular of Indian classical dances orginating from South Indian state of Tamilnadu. Bhava ,Raga & Thala are the main components of the dance. In the past it was practiced and performed in the temples by a class of dancers known as the devadasis. Bharathnatyam is the cosmic dance of lord Shiva/Nataraja. This dance form has vigor, grace and purity.
Importance of dance
1. Enhance mental Capabilities
Preformance of any classical dance requires the harmonious coordination between the hand and the feet, along with the projection of the appropriate facial expressions in consonance with the rhythm, melody and mood of the song being performed. Hence, classical dance increases the ability to concentrate, improves mental capabilities and increases the mind to body coordination of the student.
2. Character Development
Attaining appreciable levels of expertise in any classical dance requires years of dedication, commitment, practice, self-correction and maturity of thought and expression. The process of learning classical dance itself consolidates the personality of the student and enhances the strength of character by embellishing attributes of patience, self-discipline and perseverance in the student. This in turn helps the student achieve same level of commitment and dedication to all other pursuits of her life and to realize their dreams and aspirations.
3. Moral Values
Classical dance performances generally centre around the portrayal of lives of god and goddesses, mythological episodes and the teachings of religious scriptures. Such portrayals not only imbibe positive moral values in the performers but also propagate conscientious social and religious beliefs with the audience.
4. Meditative Qualities
The rendering of an intense and vigorous performance of any classical dance is equivalent to a form of meditation which introduces the student to higher plane of mental well being.
5. Physical Fitness
Dance is essentially a language of the body. Its expression demands proper form, posture and grace, which are the basic rules that have to be followed in order to render a fundamentally correct performance. Its performance involves the utilization of every muscle of the body and thus incidentally provides an entertaining and energetic form of cardiovascular and muscular fitness.