About
Ananga Manjari´s journey in Bharatanatyam commenced at the age of 4 under the tutelage of her mother, Herlinda Gonzalez, director of Gopesvara Arts in Peru. At the same time, Ananga started her training in classical ballet under professor Maruxa Ortiz, culminating all her Royal Academy exams with distinction.
At the age of 17 she pursued her training under the guidance of Guru Sri Shankar Kandasamy whom she studied for the next 6 years, having the opportunity to perform and given the titles “Yogyatra Patra” and “Ntritya Joty”. She started her advance training in contemporary with professor Fany Ruiz at the Dactilares company, traveling to Spain to give performances with the troup. Her advance training in Bharatanatyam is under Guru Smt. Janaki Rangarajan. After culminating her bachelors in International Business Administration Ananga was nominated Sub director of Gopesvara Arts and teacher of the academy.
Ananga has performed and given workshops in USA (given the title “Nritya Mayuri”), Canada, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Malaysia, China and India in prestigious festivals like “Natya Utsav” and “Pravasi Utsavam” in Chennai, and “Konark festival” in Orissa.
BHARATANATYAM
The earliest existing treatise on Indian performing arts such as dance, music and drama is called the “Natyasastra.” It is speculated that Sage Bharata wrote this masterpiece around 500 B.C. The Natyasastra was a codification of performing arts existing in ancient India. Bharatanatyam and other Indian classical dance forms stem from the writings in the Natyasastra.
The classical dance of Tamilnadu in South India is called Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is the most recent name given to the dance form. It was called “Koothu” in ancient times, “Sadhir” during the last few centuries, and “Dasi Attam” until the last century.
Until the 1930s, the dance form was exclusively the domain of temple dancers, or Devadasis. Due to the social and political mores at the time, dancing in temples was abolished and the era of Bharatanatyam on the public stage was born.
Source: http://www.carnatica.net/dance/bharatanatyam1.htm
GOPESVARA ARTS
Gopesvara Arts is a non profit organization based in Lima- Peru. Her founder and director Herlinda Gonzalez started her autodidact studies in Bharatanatyam in the year 2000 and has been dedicating her life to propagate Indian classical arts even today, reaching students from Peru and abroad, inviting Indian eminent dancers and musicians to share their knowledge and art to the South American students and general public.
