"A dancer must have tremendous personality. A God like Christ and even a godman like Rajneesh had some personality. Combination of talent, dedication, creativity and being emotive is imperative. A coupling of these four qualities with technique is essential. Monotony is deterrent as it regards your style and I notice today, that new dancers perform in a startlingly similar fashion." - Yamini Krishnamurthy.Yamini 'Poornatilaka' Krishnamurthy alias Yamini Krishnamurthy is a renowned Indian classical dancer who has dedicated her life to Indian classical dance styles Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi for decades. She is considered as the torch bearer of the Kuchipudi form of dance. She gave her debut with a dance performance in Chennai in 1957, where her charisma and stage presence were discerned when she was only seventeen. She has led an illustrious and eventful dancing career and has been honoured with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and most recently the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, in 2016.
Early Life of Yamini Krishnamurthy
Yamini Krishnamurthy was born on December 20, 1940, in a Telugu family in Madanapalli city in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Born on a full moon night, her grandfather named her Yamini ‘Poornatalika’, the term literally meaning "a full mark on the brow of night". She was brought up in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. Her mother tongue is Telugu. She hails from an eminent family that is more literally inclined than artistically. Her father, M. Krishnamurthy, was a Sanskrit scholar and grandfather was an expert in Urdu poetry.
At the age of five, she was enrolled as a student of Bharatnatyam in Kalakshetra School of Dance, Chennai under Rukmini Devi Arundale. After acquiring the foundation base at Kalakshetra, she went on to groom herself under renowned masters like Kanchipuram Ellappa Pillai, Thanjavur Kittapa Pillai, Dhandayudhapani Pillai and Mylapore Gouri Amma. She trained in Kuchipudi under Vedantam Lakshmi Narayana Shastri, Chinta Krishnamurthy and Pasumarthy Venugopal Krishna Sharma. In addition to Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi, she learnt Odissi from Pankaj Charan Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra. She was also trained in Carnatic vocal music by M. D. Ramanathan and in Veena from Kalpakam Swaminathan.
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