Guru Anuradhaji Jog

Antara Nritya Niketan is the brainchild of Guru Anuradhaji Jog.

Anuradhaji, from a very early age, has shown a serious and focussed inclination towards all forms of art. Dance and drama have been the two areas which she has paid special attention to. Naturally, therefore, all her endeavors till date have been in these fields. A keen student, she started early in the pursuit of dance as a life long field of creative learning and activity.

Graduating in Arts from Sir Parshurambhau College, Pune, where her ‘performing arts’ skills took root and started growing, Anuradhaji has come a long way to be recognized as the dynamic head of a premiere dance institute in Pune. A Master’s degree from Pune University with specialisations in Natyashastra and Hindi Language, gave Anuradhaji’s knowledge and efforts, an academic edge. Therewith and thereafter, it has been a relentless pursuit for her in the quest of acquiring, honing and using her artistic skills. A devotion to the most traditional of Indian Art forms, the Bharatanatyam dance, has been the highlight of Anuradhaji’s quest of art.

Her journey in this area began with training from the age of five under Guru (Late) Smt. Sucheta Joshi in Pune. Completion of her Arangetram in 1970, coming out with flying colors in dance examinations (Visharad in Kathak & Bharatanatyam – from reputed institutions like the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth), acquiring a Research Scholarship (from MBK Trust, Chennai) and being charmed enough to acquire professional training of Bharatnatyam under eminent names in the field (Smt. Chitra Vishweshwaran, Dr. Vyjayantimala Bali), are but a few milestone events in Anuradhaji’s dance career.

About Pandanallur style of Bharatnatyam:
The vidwan gurus, along with their illustrious predecessors and contemporaries, are responsible for the maintenance and continuation, in an almost pristine purity of form, of the Pandanallur school of Bharatanatyam. The name Pandanallur is sufficient to recall vividly to mind an austere precison of movement, a strong, meticulous command over rhythm, with brilliance and vivacity of expression.

The Gurus of this school, one and all have remained unsurpased in their mastery  over choreography. In breadth, vision, and variety, the three essential choreographic requisities, the dance-patterns of their compositions have yet to meet wit peers. The rich, harmonious, beautiful, arabesques of movement they weave are reminiscent of a series of temple frescoes come to vibrant, joyous life. The fire, crispness and vitality, the noble angularity of line, the unfettered, free and expansive manner of taking the rhythmic sequences that are such characteristic features of Bharatanatyam, are to be found in ample measure in this style of dance taught by this school.

Authnetic in style and visual form, uncompromisingly classical in tone, mood and content, highly, erotic  in sentiment and expression,  though all are adressed to the Deity,  the Pandanallur school of Bharatanatyam furnishes a direct,  vital and precious link with the precepts laid down in Bharata's ancient treatise on the twin arts of drama and dance, the Natyashastra.