Dakshina Palli, Inc.,/ The school T. Balasaraswati Sampradaya
Dakshina Palli, Inc./Dakshina Palli Dance Co.
P.O. Box 1625
New York, NY 10026
ph: 212-946-5348
fax: 646-386-7031
info
Dakshina Palli turns four years old on July 31, 2008.
Dakshina Palli, Inc./The School an educational and cultural organization was founded in 2004 by Dancer, Choreographer and Teacher Jaan R. Freeman. Dakshina maintains its strict teaching of the Adavus and the deeply expressive connection between the sahitya (poetic text) and the music. Dakshina Palli's mission is to preserve and perpetuate the Bharatanatyam lineage of the legendary late great dancer Tanjore Balasaraswati.Dakshina Palli is one of three organizations in the USA whose sole mission is to preserve this lineage. The tradition of the Balasaraswati lineage is a family tradition of music and dance which goes back some 250 years yet is in gradual danger of becoming lost. Dakshina's mission is achieved through ongoing classes, workshops, student recitals, concerts and master classes. Our classes reach out to children, adults, men, women, Indians and non-Indians alike, who find an interest in Bharatanatyam.
Dakshina Palli admits students of any race, color, national origin, and ethnic origin to all the rights,privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school.It does not discriminate on the basis of race,color, national origin, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies and other school-administered programs.
Tanjore Balasaraswati:(1918-1984)Dancer,Teacher,Musician and Singer)The flowering of Balasaraswati's genius has taken place in a garden of great splendor. For generations, the family has been a repository of the Carnatic tradition in its pristine glory.
Balasaraswati's great-great-great-great grandmother, Papammal, was a musician and a dancer at the Tanjore Court,that was in the eighteenth century.
It was into such a treasure-house of the Carnatic tradition that Balasaraswati was born on the 13th of May, 1918. Music and dance was in her blood and dance was all around her , of course, music and dance of the highest quality and practiced and heard in abundant measure. Her formal training started at the age of four under the late Kandappan Pillai and had her arangetram at the age of 7 at kancheepuram at the amanakshi amman Temple.Balasaraswati danced all over India, but it was in 1961 she went abroad to dance at the East West Encounter in tokyo.In the late 60's Balama taught and performed in the USA, at that time she planted the seed in many American disciples.Anna kissegoff, senior dance critic of the New York Times, called Balasaraswati "one of the world's greatest dancers of the 20th century."

Dakshina Palli, Inc./Dakshina Palli Dance Co.
P.O. Box 1625
New York, NY 10026
ph: 212-946-5348
fax: 646-386-7031
info