Dancing Depths: Undersea Bharatanatyam for a Cause

Two dancers, Thaaragai and Aswin, both cousins celebrated International Dance Day performing  under water in the Bay of Bengal, near Rameswaram. The idea is to promote dance as an art form among youngsters and to make this part of school curriculum.

Dressed in vibrant attire the youngsters  dove deep into the blue and showcased an energetic and exuberant Kutthu Performance (a high-energy, rhythm-focused Tamil folk dance). There was no music in the water, but they danced to a popular Kuthu paatu or folk song., without missing a beat. They define this form of art under water as “The art of letting your body float with your soul—where movement and water become one.”

Based in the coastal island of Rameswaram with a huge population of fisherfolk,  the duo have another larger aim – to raise awareness on plastic pollution in the oceans. She told tellmystory.in   “Upon completing our performance, we came across a lot of coastal nets that were stuck in corals, and it is because of these plastics that the marine life is getting damaged. People should avoid dumping plastics on the seashore  and in areas they from where they could  find their way to the ocean”.