NRTYAKALA - The Canadian Academy of Indian Dance
established 1975

FOUNDER DIRECTOR: DR. MENAKA THAKKAR
 

Menaka Thakkar founded Nrtyakala in August 1975. As the first school of Indian dance in Canada, Nrtyakala hasbeen operating uninterrupted for 32 years, and has grown to become a major Canadian institution where students of diverse cultural backgrounds are trained in the classical and contemporary traditions of Indian dance.

The primary mandate of the school is to nurture the authentic traditions of classical Bharatanatyam and Odissi, and produce performers, choreographers and teachers who will preserve, propagate and create traditional and contemporary works in Indian dance. At the same time, Nrtyakala strives to create Indian dance artists who possess a broad range of knowledge across a variety of other dance cultures such as Western Ballet, Contemporary, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese, Spanish etc. This helps our students to function and flourish in the wider Canadian dance scene with mutuality and sharing, not in isolation of their own culture-specific dance activities.

Implicit in this mandate is a wide-ranging programme of teaching, presenting student debuts called arangetrams, and further possibilities in performance and touring for advanced students. Occasionally, students are taken to international conferences to demonstrate along with Menaka’s paper presentations or lectures (Sweden in 1984, Sydney, Australia in1998, Ottawa in 2001). Currently the school has over 100 students spread over various age groups and different levels of training. The overall teaching includes theory and studio classes where, besides the training in movements, rhythms, expressional and communicative language of dance gestures, several traditional dance numbers and full repertoires are learned. The student also learns dance aesthetics, history, religion, culture, music and choreography.

Menaka is not only the Principal and Artistic Director of the school; she is also the principal teacher in the school. Since July 1st, 2007, Kalishwaran Pillai, the son of Menaka’s own Bharatanatyam Guru, Tanjavur Kadhirvelu, has been invited from India and appointed full time teacher in the school to teach both dance and dance music. In addition, four other part-time teachers assist Menaka in various measures. On a few occasions, Menaka has also invited her own Gurus from India as honored guest teachers for short periods. Workshop leaders are regularly invited to teach master classes and conduct workshops in other dance systems such as Ballet, Modern dance, Chinese dance, Indian martial arts, etc.

Over the 32-year history of the school, Menaka has taught Nrtyakala’s curriculum in several cities across Canada such as Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, and Thunderbay, creating a whole new generation of Indian dancers, choreographers and teachers. More than 100 students have performed their junior arangetram and 35 students have performed their senior arangetram, thus becoming full-fledged dancers in their own right. Many of our senior dancers have joined Nrtyakala’s sister institution; the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company
(www.menakathakkardance.org) and have performed professionally both nationally and internationally. Our students have won first and second prizes in the International Bharatanatyam Dance Competition held in New York. Several students have been employed by professional dance companies in England and the U.S.A., and many function abroad as professional dancers. Two of our former students are regarded as leading young dancers and choreographers on the Canadian scene. 16 students based in Winnipeg have successfully formed a performing company and continue to choreograph and perform professionally.

Furthermore, the principal of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dance School studied Bharatanatyam with Menaka for many years. One of Menaka’s early students won the Canada Council’s Jacqueline Limeux Award and now performs professionally in Texas, U.S.A. In that vein, Menaka continues to teach Bharatanatyam in periodic workshops at the National Ballet School Toronto, and in regular dance courses at York University where she is Adjunct Professor of Dance.