HT Brunch Cover Story: One of India’s greatest dancers, Malvika Sarukkai, is facing her biggest challenge

The ace Bharatanatyam dancer reveals how she gave a sacred scripture the physicality of dance

Twenty minutes before the world premiere of her latest production, The Battle Within, Malavika Sarukkai, ‘India’s greatest living dancer’ according to pre-eminent art critic B N Goswamy, stands alone in her green room, warming up.

Malvika Sarukkai’s new solo production is based on the Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism’s most influential and beloved scripture(Sudeep Bhattacharya)

Malavika’s greatest strength is her ability to contemporise Bharatanatyam in a way that even classicists can admire (Sudeep Bhattacharya)

“With an ensemble production, the challenge is to design the space and interact with other dancers. But my life’s breath is presenting in solo.”

“You have to displace that ego so that you feel bliss, so that you can convey bliss”

While Malavika does ensemble productions, her primary calling is that of a solo artist (Sudeep Bhattacharya)

“What I learned from my gurus was a style. But as I worked on my dance and internalised its patterns, it became a language for me”

“It was very important to me to have a female voice sing the part of Arjuna the warrior”

Malavika moved away from the crowd-pleasing god-stories to take on larger issues (Sudeep Bhattacharya)

“The Bhagavad Gita took me to universes inside myself, universes that I have not seen”

“For me, dance is a language, not a style!”