These friends, Ponni and Anjali from the Aravani community in Chennai, against all odds struggled to learn Bharathanatyam and become teachers. They have established a dance school in a working class area where they are respected as dance teachers. It is now 2nd year. Initially they had only community students. Now they have people from the area, children and many others. They have 30 students and they are earning their livelihood from the school. They also perform outside and act in plays.
The area where they teach is not an area which belongs to affluent class. It is a Dalith colony. It is a working class area where people are cobblers, vegetable vendors, people who make breakfast and take it to rich areas and sell, and so on. It is these people's children who come to learn Bharathanatyam from Ponni and Anjali. They identify themselves as women and their students also do not question them nor the area people. It is simply amazing that how Ponni and Anjali have broken the caste restriction around the traditional dance making it easily accessible to all and train students to become performers.
The area where they teach is not an area which belongs to affluent class. It is a Dalith colony. It is a working class area where people are cobblers, vegetable vendors, people who make breakfast and take it to rich areas and sell, and so on. It is these people's children who come to learn Bharathanatyam from Ponni and Anjali. They identify themselves as women and their students also do not question them nor the area people. It is simply amazing that how Ponni and Anjali have broken the caste restriction around the traditional dance making it easily accessible to all and train students to become performers.
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