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Nataraja Ramakrishna spent a lot of time in the
Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore (Madras / Chennai), watching the temple
priest who used several mudras while worshipping Shiva. He found many
of the mudras akin to the ones he learnt at Sri Kalahasti. He then
started reading the agama texts in the Ramakrishna Mutt library where he
came across Ananda Coomaraswami's books. ('Nataraja Ramakrishna: Crusader and Visionary' by M. Nagabhushana Sarma, Nartanam, Oct– Dec 2016) |
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Guru Kandappa Pillai, guru of Balasaraswathi, introduced a number of changes. - He did away with turbans and replaced the upper cloth with a shirt for his entire team. - He introduced the singing of the Tiruppugazh during Alarippu. - He replaced the mukha veena with flute and clarinet. - He made Jayammal perform padams and javalis in the second half of the concert. His respect for Jayammal made him seat the orchestra on one side of the stage. - He brought variety into teermanams. Another innovation was when a teermanam was being performed, the music of the composition into which the teermanam was set, continued. To date, this remains unique to Kandappa's style. (Exhibition on Bala by Museum of Performing Arts (MOPA) Foundation at Music Academy, Chennai, Jan 2019) |
