Dance to the beats of Urumi with Master Nellai Manikandan

CHENNAI: With intricate steps and unique moves, Devarattam, which means the ‘dance of gods’, blends in improving acting skills while using dance moves simultaneously. Showcasing the art form is Nellai Manikandan, who has mastered performing arts over the last 25 years. He is conducting a Devarattam workshop at IDAM, a Chennai-based theatre production company, where he would make people groove to his Urumi.

“This age-old art form is performed during both good and bad occasions, from birth to death. As an artistic team, we wanted the art form to reach people, and for them to practice the dance form, thus staying connected to their ancient traditions,” explains Vetri MV, artistic director at IDAM.

The workshop, open to people of all age groups, will have Nellai Manikandan, sharing his knowledge of training more than 30,000 students across the world.

“This dance form uses a combination of martial arts and graceful dance moves, helping the participants learn how to attain a perfect body balance, also working as a therapy. The master will be playing the Urumi, which is one of the main sources of music used in Devarattam,” says Vetri.

IDAM will be seeing its second Devarattam workshop on September 3, after its first successful workshop which took place on July 28.

“The previous workshop was received well by people with 24 participants. We are expecting the same number of enthusiastic participants for the upcoming workshop, which will start from 10 am with a warm-up session, followed by the Devarattam being performed till 1 pm,” highlights the artistic director.