Dance school exclusively for trans community opens in Chennai, training to be free

Dr C Sunil Menon, the founder of Sahodaran, told indianexpress.com that the initiative would be a platform for transgender people to express their talents.

“The Sathya Sai Trust had opened a similar dance academy, exclusively for transgenders, in Kerala a few months ago. When they approached us to do a similar initiative in Chennai, we were very pleased and excited. As a community we love to perform, we are born entertainers. For us, to get an opportunity to learn classical dance is something that we always aspired to. We have had role models like (Dr) Narthaki Natraj, Mallika Panicker, who made a name not only for themselves but for the trans community also. We are happy that Mallika is part of our committee as well,” he said.

Dr Menon added they wanted this service to be available to the trans community at free of cost as it would encourage more people to join and learn the art.

“It’s expensive to learn to dance. Not many people have the resources. If you want to do a performance, you need to book a sabha and they should be willing to give you the platform. After that, you need to pay for the instrumentalist, vocalist and others. These are huge barriers, it puts you off. The community members will feel dejected that they are not able to exhibit their talent due to their financial constraints. We wanted to give this facility to the community at free of cost. I feel this is a good change for them both physically and mentally. Their health improves, there is a routine and mentally also they get a sense of discipline, purpose and I feel dance really inculcates that into your system,” he said.

“The classes are going to be held at the terrace of Dr Nedungadi’s Ayurvedic Centre in the city. Ten of our members have enrolled so far. We are going to teach them bharatanatyam. Based on the interest of members, and if we get many more, we will think about teaching other dance forms. The problem with the community is keeping time, maintaining discipline… it will take time to get into a routine. But we hope this will really help them to get their act together. We will start slowly. The classes will be held once a week and later two or three deepening on the numbers. The classes would be held online as well for the benefit of the members,” Dr Menon added.

Kalaimamani Sudha, a transgender activist, said the community members would certainly benefit from the initiative.

Dr C Sunil Menon, the founder of Sahodaran, told indianexpress.com that the initiative would be a platform for transgender people to express their talents.
(Photo: Express/Sourced)

”I believe that our members would be on par with other women. When our members approached a few popular bharatanatyam dance schools, they were not accepted. This initiative is dedicated specially for them. All interested trans community members can participate in this and show their talent. In the first batch, there will be 15 members. We would provide them training for a few months for their arangetram (first performance). Based on the outcome, we will take steps to begin the next batch of students,” she said.

Sudha added that earlier they had no access to even basic education and could not even imagine a platform like this to fine tune their skills.

“I used to dance to the ‘Azhagu Malarada‘ song (from Tamil film ‘Vaidhegi Kaathirundhaal’) and practise all the acting at my place itself because I had no opportunity to show it to the outside world. This generation has that freedom. They have the facility and the support of organisations like us and I believe they will excel. By witnessing their passion and performance, I am sure the rest of the other Sabhas will come forward to provide an opportunity to them to exhibit their talent,” she added.