Feb 29, 2016
Rukmini Devi’s 112th Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Dancer and choreographer Rukmini Devi was born in India in 1904. Devi popularized the Bharata Natyam, a traditional Indian dance form with roots stretching back over a thousand years. Originally performed in Hindu temples, Bharata Natyam had almost disappeared until Devi rescued it from obscurity, modernizing its style and infusing it with elements of the music, theater, and costumes she encountered in her travels. She and her husband established the Kalakshetra academy of dance and music in Chennai in 1936.
Devi was also an animal rights activist. In 1962, she even served as the first chair of the Animal Welfare Board of India. When asked how she became an activist, she said, "I was standing one day on a railway platform, waiting for my train when I felt my sari being tugged by someone. I turned around to find it was no ‘someone’ but a monkey, a caged monkey, pulling at my sari to ask me to help it get out of that trap ... I felt that the monkey had given me a task, a mission."
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