Legends stories - Rukmini devi Arundale

Legends stories

Rukmini Devi Arundale

( 29/2/1904 - 24/2/1986 )

When the Prime Minister offered the chair of the President of India to her she politely declined.

Long before that she had already occupied  a niche in the arena of Indian culture and dance. Her powerful personality, her contribution to the renaissance of Bharatanatyam and her creation of Kalakshetra, the world - renowned academy of arts in chennai, earned for her great admiration.

A person of multifaceted interests, Rukmini was an effective orator who could hold her audience spellbound on subjects as varied as the arts and animal welfare ; an educationist who went on to set up schools and teacher training centres. She was intrumental in getting a law enacted towords prevention of cruelty to animals when she was a member of the Rajya Sabha, Environment conservation and nurturing indigenous crafts were among other causes she passionately promoted.

Her motto was ' Education without fear and art without vulgarity'.

• I can only say I did not consciously go after dance, If found me.
• We dance with our bodies, but we finally forgot them and transfer them.
• A great dancer's art must depend first on the be life he or she expresses, secondly upon the beauty of technique and lastly only, upon its arrangement, costume and presentation.. Though form, technique and skill are essential, great art must have the impetus of genius and inspiration. Then there is permanency.
• I started the academy with one tree, one pupil and one teacher.
• A dancer or musician must burn to ashes all thought which is dross and bring out the gold which is within.
• I thought that a cultural renaissance would be equally meanigful - that a country which was losing its identity would be best served by a revival of its traditional arts.
• To be truly Indian is to be truly international, so none of us must forget the best of our civilisation and to live it in our daily lives.
• Peace cannot come where Peace is not given.
• Thousands of women are not really free .. There is a place for women in the new age. Do not let us ask for it. No one has to give you what is rightfully yours. Merely take it and you shall have it.
• The three things I should like to see as an expression of culture that kindness should become a part of the lives of all, women should have a real voice in every department of the nation and that we should be truly Indian in heart, mind and soul .
• Animals cannot speck, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them ? Lets us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world.
• Art is life and compassion is the highest form of Art.
• Art is a stream flowing through all life. Art is a universal mode of life, as also, most truly is science, is religion, and is every individual and particular expression of life. The part is always vibrant with the whole and with every other part. Life is one whatever be its forms.
• I feel sure that through art we can realise more happiness for the world