Page 8 - programmes conducted during year 2016

Feb 27: Rangapravesha by Lasya Priya

Every classical dancer in Karnataka needs to be grateful to Guru H R Keshavamurthy,
because he was one of the earliest practitioners and proponents of classical dance in the
State. What Rukmini Devi Arundale did in Chennai, Keshavamurthy did in Karnataka, not on
that scale or focus, but he certainly was one of those responsible for accruing respectability
to classical dance, and many young girls from conservative Brahmin families taking to dance
at his Keshava Nritya Shala in conservative Malleshwaram.
What Keshavamurthy has given to the culture field in Karnataka has in fact gone unsung
and unrecognised, because he not only belonged to an era of humble beginning and growth,
but he was not a savvy marketer. Even today there is none to parallel him in his depth of
knowledge on varied subjects that go to make an artiste complete, such as Samskritam,
Kannada literature—modern and ancient, folk arts, forms and music, Carnatic classical
music, and Kathak and Bharatanatya.
Vasanthalakshmi Venkataram and B K Shyam Prasad are two of his children who are long-
standing dance teachers in Bengaluru, with Shyam Prakash even having established the
Keshava College of Dance and Music , which is affiliated to the University of Bangalore.
Shyam Prasad‘s and Vasanthalaskhmi‘s families are also into the arts field. The latest third
generation dancer to enter the fray is Lasya Priya, Keshavamurthy‘s youngest son,
Ravishankar‘s daughter.

Lasya Priya