Legendary danseuse and Padma Bhushan awardee, Mrinalini Sarabhai passed away in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Her daughter Mallika Sarabhai wrote on Facebook, “My mother Mrinalini Sarabhai has just left for her eternal dance”. Sarabhai had been admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad after she fell ill.
The 97-year-old danseuse, environmentalist, poet and writer was fondly called ‘Amma’ by her students. Wife of Vikram Sarabhai, Mrinalini Sarabhai was one of the first classical dancers to turn to choreography.
A dancer trained in Bharatnatyam, Kathakali and Mohiniyattom, Mrinalini was born in Kerala on 11 May 1918.
She was raised in Switzerland where she learned the Dalcroze method, a Western technique of dance movements. Upon returning to India, she received her education at Shantiniketan, under the guidance of Rabindranath Tagore. It was here that she realised that her true calling was dancing and decided to pursue a career in this art form.
She went to the United States and enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to train in dance. After a while she returned to India to continue her training in classical dance forms.
She learned the south Indian classical dance form, Bharatanatyam, from Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, the classical dance-drama Kathakali from the Guru Thakazhi Kunchu Kurup, and Mohiniattam from Kalyanikutty Amma. All of her dance instructors were renowned masters in their own fields, and thus she received the best training she could get.
She married the prominent physicist Dr Vikram Sarabhai and moved to his home in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat.
Dr Sarabhai encouraged her to pursue her passion for dancing. In 1949, she along with her husband set up Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. It was founded as a small dance academy intended to teach and propagate the Indian classical dance forms through performances.
Over the decades she went on to choreograph more than three hundred dance dramas, including the highly acclaimed musical, Krishna-Gopala and This Mahabharata.
In addition to being a choreographer and dancer, she is also a prolific writer who has authored numerous novels, poetry, plays and stories for children.
Mrinalini Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1992 and the Padma Shri in 1965.
In her blog she wrote, “Dance I feel is a fundamental spontaneous expression of humankind from the crudest leaps around a fire to the sophisticated forms of the dynamic spirit within us. Creative work is a mystical experience. In literature, in dance, in drama, indeed in all the arts, the inspiration is the springboard for the final work. But inspiration is itself the result of many years of study, a deep knowledge of the subject and hard work.”
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)