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Creative Genius Madurai R. Muralidaran - A Profile
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Vaidehi Moorthy
07/19/2018
Creative Genius Madurai R. Muralidaran – A Profile
Editors note: Madurai R. Muralidaran is no stranger to the New England dance scene. His unique, sold-out Broadway style mega productions for Vision-Aid have won acclaim across New England. His daughter Kavya Muralidaran follows in the footsteps and is a path breaker in her own right, earning a reputation for her grace, skill and poise. This year, Muralidaran is bringing to Boston on July 22 nd , at Littleton “Golden Armor, Golden Heart – The inspiring story of Karna†, another sold out show with over 700 attending.
Who really is the man behind these amazing productions? Read on to find out from the perspective of one of his youngest students Vaidehi Moorthy, a rising 7 th grader and passionate Bharathanatyam dancer who has participated in multiple Vision-Aid Annual Fundraisers. This year is her 5 th year doing the Vision-Aid performance under Guru Muralidaran and in this article, shares her youthful insights into this acclaimed dance choreographer.
A profile of Muralidaran by Vaidehi Moorthy
Natyaperarasu Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran is an acclaimed dancer, composer, and choreographer. He has composed many songs, and he has directed, acted in, composed and choreographed many dance drama musicals. Out of the 35 possible music talams, only a handful of them are used frequently, like Adi talam. However, Guru Muralidaran has done margams set to infrequently used talams, such as the longest talam, sankeerna jaathi dhruva talam, with 29 beats. Recently, his festival Chaturvidam, with four margams in four different talams, ended with a class to learn the nattuvangam and steps to an alarippu. This class set a Guinness World Record for the most students in a live Bharathanatyam class – over 320 people – and also set records in the India Book and Asia Book. Guru Muralidaran’s performances are performed worldwide, from the USA and India to Australia and New Zealand.
Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran helps Vision-Aid with their annual dance fundraiser. When asked why he does this he said that they approached him. He says, “I said yes… because it’s…for a good cause.†He also helps other organizations. His latest Vision-Aid performance, Karna is the story of yet another generous person. Karna is the story of Karna, the secret sixth Pandava, and one of the Kauravas. In this show, Duryodhana, the traditional villain, is sometimes portrayed as one of the “good guys,†while the Pandavas, the traditional heros, are portrayed antagonists. This deep idea, and the many other ones that appear in Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran’s shows, are achieved by one simple task. As he puts it, “I do research.†He just looks for what actually happened.
Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran is known for being “A person who [brings
a]…production [to]… the common people.†Other things he is known for include his unrivaled compositions, his wholehearted kindness, and, of course, his unequaled dancing. He enjoys songwriting, and, of course, has always been passionate about dance. His greatest accomplishment is earning people as friends. He cares about his students, who care about him in turn. Another notable accomplishment of his is that he does all of the following: plays mridangam, sings Carnatic vocal music, dances Bharathanatyam, composes songs. In addition, he directs, writes lyrics to, acts in, produces, and pulls together as a whole, each and every one of his multiple dance drama musicals that are being performed in different parts of the world. How did he come to do that? Guru Muralidaran says that he needed to stand on his own. That iswhy he has learned so many skills in life.
Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran is more than the average dancer , director or
musician. He is very talented at all that he does, yet he is very humble. He is a hero to many young dancers. He is a very talented wordsmith. Participating in a dance drama of his is not only an uplifting experience, but also beneficial to all dancers, as watching him and being corrected by him is a great advantage to dancers of all ages and capabilities. Sri Madurai R. Muralidaran is a role model to all dancers.
About Madurai R Muralidharan
Madurai R Muralidharan is an acclaimed composer, musician, dancer and director who believes in presenting complex concepts with simplicity to reach the common man and the connoisseur of art with élan and professionalism. Muralidharan was working as a dance professor in Tamil Music College and now he has been appointed as a member of the advisory board in Dr.Alagappa University for Online Bharatha Natyam Degree course.
At the age of 17, he started learning the classical Bharata Natyam from KalaimamaniSmt. Chamundeswari. Soon, with a thirst for music, he became a student of Madurai Sethuraman and then to master percussion, he became a student of Madurai Sreenivasan. Today, he has composed 1000s of original musical compositions that are rich with innovations, complexities and a boon to dancers.
Muralidharan holds a record of composing and releasing more than 120 Audio albums which contains a full repertoire of songs exclusively for the field of Bharatha Natyam. He has the record of composing the whole Bharatha Natya repertoire in all the Sulathi Shaptha talas (35 Talams) Recently he has composed Jathiswarams in all 72 Melakartha raghas and released a book “Nritya Lahari is unprecedented in the field of Bharatha Natyam.
He has conducted a grand rhythm festival “Chaturvidham†and the festival culminated with a massive live class with over 320 students learning the Nattuvangam and choreography for an Alarippu set to Sankeerna Jaathi Dhruva Thalam, the longest Talam in the Carnatic system. This class set Guinness, India Book and Asia Book records for the largest live Bharatha Natyam dance lesson.
His musical compositions, over the years have travelled the length and the breadth of the world. His dance musicals have reached from Africa to Australia, New Zealand to Boston.
His academy Nithyakshethra Dance Academy identifies talents and passion for dance in its student, and trains them to achieve levels of excellence.
His passion to learn and his fight to shine in this complex world of classical music and dance, inspired him in adopting a style that is simple yet profound, lucid yet emotional, artistic yet relevant. Which is why, his 120 artistes strong dance musical and his recent “Sivagamiyin Sabadham†was passionately described by ‘The Hindu’ as a Zero-error-program!
About Kavya Muralidaran
Kavya Muralidaran, a young versatile dancer, hails from a family with an artistic background. She is the daughter and disciple of Madurai R. Muralidaran and Smt. Chithra Muralidaran. Kavya Completed her Arangetram at the age of 8, accompanied by Mrudangam Maestro Sri. DA Srinivas in the presence of Guru Padmashree Adyar K Lakshman, Guru Sri Narasimhachari and Smt. Nandini Ramani and was blessed as “Child Prodigy†from all the Chief guests. Her first performance was in the presence of Dr.Kalignar Karunanidhi. She displays such panache and confidence that she always brings a sparkle to the art as a performer and is highly inspiring. Often called as a 'child prodigy' her caliber has always been far ahead of her age. Her touring started along with her parents to give several performances in USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Dubai, South Africa, Kuwait, London etc. She plays lead roles in dance ballets and presents solo concerts. She is a graded artiste in Doordharshan.
Kavya completed her 12th STD from SBOA school and junior college and graduated from MOP Vaishnav college for women with a bachelors degree in Visual communication and has completed her Masters degree in Bharathanatyam at the University of Madras. She has topped in several dance competitions both inter school and inter college levels. She has currently into choreography for inter collegiate dances which she enjoys.
Listing a few of her programs. She completed her arangetram in 2005 and was selected as the best dancer and winner in the famous TV show Thaka Dhimi Tha (Jaya T.v) for three consecutive years. In 2003 was awarded the title Nrithyaswaroopi by the Indian Arts academy (Australia). Since 2010 has been dancing in Chennail Thiruviyaru. Played the role of Sivagami in Sivagamiyin Shabadham which was staged in FETNA in Canada in 2013. And also in the numerous shows that were staged this year in Australia, Canada, the U.S. , U.K, South Africa, Kuwait. Kavya has also had an experience with some of the leading Gurus in the field of dance, like Shobana and has been a part of her dance musical Krishna and Maya Ravan. She was also a part of Sri. Narasimhachari, Smt. Anitha Guha, Smt. Sangeetha Ishvarans productions. She recently performed along with Veena maestro Sri. Rajesh Vaidhya and Shankaran Namboodri as a part of trinity Festival Melbourne named Creative spirit (A Veena and Bharathanatyam duo) by Kavya and Sri.Rajesh Vaidhya.Kavya is a regular performer in all the sabhas in Chennai during the dance festival season. Her other interests are she loves pets and nature and has a keen interest in film productions. She recently was awarded the title 'Yuva Kala Vipanchee' from Vipanchee Natyalaya. She feels really honoured and humbled to participate in Vision-aid’s production.
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