Photos: Chris Emeott
Twelve years of training culminates in a solo concert.
On June 29, 2024, Wayzata High School graduate Mahati Rayadurgam entered into a lineage of artistic practice that traces its roots back nearly 3,000 years. Her arangetram—a solo dance performance, spanning two-and-a-half-hours—is a graduation in its own right, marking her debut as a qualified bharatanatyam artist.
Bharatanatyam is one of the most widely practiced styles of classical dance in India. “I think that the best way to describe it is that it’s a dance vocabulary and style that encompasses both a very emotive, personal storytelling as well as abstract movement to complex rhythms,” says Suchi Sairam, founder of Kala Vandanam Dance Company in St. Paul.
Sairam has been Rayadurgam’s dance teacher for the past 12 years and has been working closely with the 18-year-old over the course of a year to prepare her for this performance. “In this debut concert, the dancer must be able to perform all of the fundamental aspects of the [bharatanatyam] repertoire in a suite of eight to 10 dances, based on their years of training,” Sairam says. “This debut is a major milestone for a dancer, to publicly demonstrate their high level of competence in the art form. It is also considered to be a launching point as an artist.”
Plymouth resident and dancer Mahati Rayadurgam.
Sairam says that, as the teacher, she makes the judgment call if she thinks a student is ready for the immense undertaking of the arangetram. “It’s not solely about dancing,” she says. “It is about your mental toughness. It’s about fitness. It is about resilience. It is about your desire and passion because none of this should be forced. It’s a beautiful experience. You learn and grow so much, but also it requires such an immense commitment from that student [and] from their family.”
Once a student is ready to commit themselves to arangetram, Sairam sets to work choreographing a performance specific to the student. She explains that there is a set framework for arangetram performances. “Then within those [categories], you have hundreds, maybe thousands of compositions that you can choose from,” she says.
“We had a conversation beforehand about what type of dances I wanted to do, what type of dances my parents wanted to see, what was important to us in our family history,” Rayadurgam says. “[Suchi] does a very, very good job of including all those things and also knowing where to challenge me and what pieces play to my strengths and can help me improve my weaknesses.”
Sairam makes a point to include pieces from her teachers and her teachers’ teachers. “Some of these pieces were choreographed in the 1930s and ’40s,” she says. “Some of the compositions go back several hundred years or even a thousand years. Some of the poetry goes back to the fourth century.” She also choreographs at least one new piece for each student. “It’s a way to carry on tradition but also a way to create new and keep it as a living art form,” she says.
With compositions spanning different centuries and languages, Rayadurgam says one of the things she’s been working on during her study is, “learning to really understand and develop the stories that I’m telling through my dancing, both personally and the way that reflects the intentions of the poet or composer who wrote it. Those are conversations that we have a lot in the studio. I have to understand both what I’m trying to convey and how to personalize that to me as a dancer.”
Suchi Sairam and Mahati Rayadurgam at Rayadurgam’s arangetram, which was held at Wayzata Central Middle School. Photo: Kala Vandanam Dance Company
There is, of course, the physical demands of a two-and-a-half-hour performance, but dancers also require mental stamina and resilience for their arangetram. “I think a lot of it is being in the moment when I dance, being concentrated on the one thing that I’m doing and then developing the muscle memory to go along with that,” Rayadurgam says. “Then there’s also the other part of it; if I do make a mistake, if I do forget what I’m doing, being confident in my skills to be able to adapt in the moment.”
Four weeks out from her arangetram performance, Rayadurgam says, “I think I’m most looking forward to the contrast in the pieces, different emotions that I will be portraying to my audience that day and showcasing the breadth of all of my skills that I’ve developed in dance for 12 years.”
Although the performance marks a culmination of Rayadurgam’s skills up to that point in time, she says her arangetram will mark the beginning of a new chapter, not the end. “I will be dancing for as long as I can,” she says.
Mahati Rayadurgam performed to an audience of family and close friends, accompanied by five live musicians.
Kala Vandanam Dance Company
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