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Why visibility was a barrier
Bharatanatyam’s stage repertoire has often centered on the nayika, the heroine or woman whose longing and devotion animate many compositions. In her January 2017 report from Chennai’s annual culture season, Malini Nair described women as having been treated as the expected performers of this material. Men, meanwhile, had historically held prominent roles as gurus and nattuvanars—the musicians and teachers who guide a dance performance—without being equally associated with performing onstage.
Nair framed the imbalance partly as an institutional risk: organizers and sponsors regarded women dancers as the “safest bet.” That helps explain why appearing on a schedule mattered, but it does not mean every organizer or audience held the same view. The feature also records the social scrutiny attached to male dancers. Dancer, writer, and choreographer Anita Ratnam put it this way: “Male dancers in India have been lone warriors, never a part of the ‘circle’, constantly questioned about their sexual identity,” she pointed out.
How male dancers approached female-centered roles
The performers Nair discussed did not follow one formula. Some took on female characters; others emphasized male roles or made their characterization less dependent on conventional feminine mannerisms. The differences are artistic choices, not a test of who is more authentic. Bharatanatyam’s expressive vocabulary allows a dancer to interpret characters and emotions; the question is how each performer gives them shape.
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| Performer | Approach described in Nair’s 2017 report |
|---|---|
| N. Srikanth | Among the examples of a dancer taking on female roles. |
| A. Lakshmanaswamy | Associated in the feature with a pronounced nayika persona. |
| Praveen Kumar | Preferred male roles and favored restrained, individualized emotional expression over caricature. |
| Vaibhav Arekar | Used theatre training to bring distinctive character interpretations to the classical repertoire. |
Praveen Kumar: making room for men’s emotion
Kumar said he preferred male roles, while arguing that dance should make space for men’s emotional lives too: “There has to be space in dance for how men emote too, right?” he said. Nair described his portrayal of a waiting lover as restrained rather than as an exaggerated feminine imitation. The distinction is not that one emotional register is correct; it is that a male dancer can communicate longing without making femininity a caricature.
Vaibhav Arekar: character through interpretation
Arekar credited theatre training under director Chetan Datar with shaping his approach to character. In Nair’s account, he reimagined the sakhi—the heroine’s confidante—as an intelligent adviser and treated the nayika’s grief as meditative melancholy. He also made clear that this interpretive work did not mean leaving the classical form behind: “I am not looking to go contemporary. Margam (classical repertoire) is my path,” Arekar said.
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- Elegant & Performance-Ready – Designed to complement dance postures, footwork, and expressions during performances and rehearsals
- Comfortable Fabric – Made with soft, breathable material to support long practice hours and stage programs
- Traditional Pleated Style – Structured pleats create a classic Bharatanatyam look and open beautifully during dance movements
- Versatile Usage – Suitable for Bharatanatyam recitals, classical dance competitions, cultural functions, festivals, and stage shows
Why audiences responded
Nair connected the favorable response to performers’ individual interpretations and to audience fatigue with repetitive portrayals. Humor, distinctive characterization, and varied emotional choices gave familiar material new inflections. That is the journalist’s qualitative reading of performances and audience response, not a measured survey or proof that all audiences preferred these approaches.
Who appeared in the reported Chennai season
Besides Kumar and Arekar, Nair named A. Lakshmanaswamy, Shreejith Krishna, Christopher Guruswamy, Zakir Hussain, N. Srikanth, and Parshwanath Upadhye among male dancers appearing on schedules. The list illustrates visibility in that particular season; it is not a census of Bharatanatyam performers. The feature’s setting and examples are described in Nair’s Scroll.in report, published January 14, 2017.
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- Comfortable Fabric – Made with soft, breathable material to support long practice hours and stage programs
- Traditional Pleated Style – Structured pleats create a classic Bharatanatyam look and open beautifully during dance movements
- Versatile Usage – Suitable for Bharatanatyam recitals, classical dance competitions, cultural functions, festivals, and stage shows
What the account does—and does not—show today
A later University of Technology Sydney thesis on performers’ rights provides secondary context, describing stigma and exclusion from the mainstream for male Bharatanatyam performers alongside greater acceptance. It also contrasts role conventions in Bharatanatyam with those in Kuchipudi. The thesis does not provide a current, longitudinal account of the dancers in Nair’s feature, and neither source establishes how many male performers there are, how audience attitudes have changed over time, or what the current performance landscape looks like. The thesis is available from the University of Technology Sydney.
Quick Recap
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