Dance as a way of life: An Aussie’s journey

KOCHI: Christopher Gurusamy is obsessed with dance. “I’ve always wanted to dance ever since I was a baby,” he says. For him, joining ‘Kalakshethra’ was one of the wisest decisions taken in his life. 
Having spent a decade being a dancer in India, he remembers how Indian culture and the ‘Kalakshethra’ experience has moulded him as a dancer and as an individual.

“People consider dance to be a woman’s field. Regardless of female dancers being preferred in ‘sabhas’, I feel there has been a change and men are slowly inculcated into dance,” he continues. 

Dance runs through his genes. His mother was a dancer and aunt, the first woman to go to ‘Kalakshethra’ from Singapore in the 1960s. At the age of seven, he took up ballet, jazz and learnt gymnastics along with bharatanatyam.  Christopher’s style of dancing is poetic and abhinaya-centric. 

“There are a few ‘padha’s’ which fascinate me. The Tamil ‘padham’ - ‘Yaarikakilum Bhayama’ in raga ‘Bairagi’, is my personal favourite. The character, who has been defamed by the public for falling in love with the king, says, ‘The king loved me and I loved the king. Who are you to comment on that? I shouldn’t have to hide who I’m in love with, and you don’t have to accept it’. I love the idea itself, it’s a contemporary thought which is written in a 200-year-old ‘padham’,” says Christopher. 

Recently at the ‘Nishagandhi Dance Festival’, he performed ‘Natesha Kauthuvam’, ‘Jagadodharana’, ‘Thillana’ which was well appreciated. Christopher strongly believes opportunities knocked on his doors as a result of hard work and luck.