{"id":27049,"date":"2016-01-28T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T21:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=27049"},"modified":"2016-01-28T18:50:50","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T00:50:50","slug":"hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Hema Rajagopalan: A dancer unfurling Indian culture in Chicago (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Nikita Mandhani<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Hema Rajagopalan, an acclaimed Indian classical dancer, moved to Chicago from India in 1974. With a master\u2019s degree in nutrition, she chose to quit dancing and work as a dietician in the city. But, her passion for the dance of Bharata Natyam won over.<\/p>\n<p>A leading member of the Indian-American community persuaded Rajagopalan to perform at a community center in Chicago. From there on, Rajagopalan\u2019s journey as a dance teacher took off. At the request of a few parents, she started teaching Bharata Natyam to children. What started as a small dance class in her living room grew to become a leading dance theatre in Chicago and its suburbs.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 153418302 w=474]<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Hema Rajagopalan is deeply committed to the dance form of Bharata Natyam. (Nikita Mandhani\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n<p>Bharata Natyam is one of the oldest dance forms of India. \u201cDue to its wide range of movements and postures and the balanced m\u00e9lange of the rhythmic and mimetic aspects lends itself well to experimental and fusion choreography,\u201d according to the Art India website.<\/p>\n<p>Rajagopalan says that Bharata Natyam is a classical dance form that was derived from the Natya Shastra, a 3000-year-old treatise in the Hindu mythology comprising of rules and regulations of dance, drama, theatre and art. She calls it a \u201ccomposite art form\u201d because it\u2019s not one-dimensional.<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 153418881 w=474]<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Hema Rajagopalan explains the three aspects of Bharata Natyam. (Nikita Mandhani\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n<p>Rajagopalan\u2019s dance company,\u00a0 the Natya Dance Theatre (NDT), \u201coffers ongoing, comprehensive training for beginner through professional levels in Bharata Natyam.\u201d According to the theatre&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natya.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>, apart from classes, it also offers annual dance performances.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Hema Rajagopalan teaches Bharata Natyam to her students. (Nikita Mandhani\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nikita Mandhani Hema Rajagopalan, an acclaimed Indian classical dancer, moved to Chicago from India in 1974. With a master\u2019s degree in nutrition, she chose to quit dancing and work as a dietician in the city. But, her passion for the dance of Bharata Natyam won over. A leading member of the Indian-American community persuaded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":25698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2016","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hema Rajagopalan: A dancer unfurling Indian culture in Chicago (Video) - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hema Rajagopalan: A dancer unfurling Indian culture in Chicago (Video) - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nikita Mandhani Hema Rajagopalan, an acclaimed Indian classical dancer, moved to Chicago from India in 1974. With a master\u2019s degree in nutrition, she chose to quit dancing and work as a dietician in the city. But, her passion for the dance of Bharata Natyam won over. A leading member of the Indian-American community persuaded [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-28T21:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T00:50:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/dance-hema.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nikitamandhani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"nikitamandhani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hema-rajagopalan-a-dancer-unfurling-indian-culture-in-chicago-video\/\",\"name\":\"Hema Rajagopalan: A dancer unfurling Indian culture in Chicago (Video) - 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