A chance to converse with Sir Vineeth Radhakrishnan, an elegant classical dancer who is also an eminent actor, choreographer, and voice artist.
Recently, I was invited to an Arangetram function organized by the Saptha Swara Institute of Performing Arts. We went to watch the students of the institute, many of them I have seen over the years growing up, performing at music and dance recitals, and one was our closest friend’s daughter as well. The performance of the students along with their teacher Saptha Raman Namboodiri was amazing.
The chief guest of the event was Sri Vineeth Radhakrishnan, an eminent actor who is also an elegant classical dancer, choreographer, and voice artist. Starting to learn Bharathanatyam at the age of six, he acquired the first rank for the Post-Graduation course in Bharathanatyam M FA in 2012 conducted by Sastra University, Thanjavur. In 2019, Sri Vineeth opened his dance school, Nrithyagruham, where Bharathanatyam is taught under the pedagogy designed by his Guru, Dr.Padma Subrahmanyam.
We watched his beautiful performance, saw his encouraging words to the students, and marveled at how humble and sweet his behavior was. He had no airs of being something he was not. All his actions reflected his hard work and his love for the art of dance and music. I wished to be able to click a photo with him and was waiting until the programs were done.
Finally, my friend and I got the chance. It was two minutes with a celebrity but felt honored when he responded to me saying I am from Kerala and work for an online newspaper, Irish Indian Chronicles, “wow, that’s amazing.”
On behalf of the Indian arts in Ireland, I asked him his opinion and he said, it’s really prestigious and precious that children growing up in foreign countries is passionately practicing Indian art forms like Bharatanatyam. Dance was a part of him since his childhood and he is happy to see the development of this art form.
Further, when we mentioned we are also students of Bharatanatyam but a different dance school, he wanted to know more. We mentioned our dance school and our teacher. He spoke to my friend in Telegu as well when she said she is from Telangana.
I wished we could get to talk a lot about his passions, the training he received, achievements in his life, and a lot more but since the whole audience was waiting for a few seconds with this maestro, we clicked a photo and moved away. But excited to have been able to have this few minutes of conversation with Vineeth Sir.