{"id":668,"date":"2025-03-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/?p=668"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:29:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T10:29:25","slug":"meet-radha-varadan-the-kathak-dancer-reinterpreting-classic-ballet-variations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/meet-radha-varadan-the-kathak-dancer-reinterpreting-classic-ballet-variations\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Radha Varadan, the Kathak Dancer Reinterpreting Classic Ballet Variations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radha Varadan\u2019s ingenious reimaginings of some of ballet\u2019s<\/a> most famous<\/a> variations<\/a> using kathak, a form of Indian classical dance, have earned her serious traction online. Based in India and the U.S., Varadan trained in both ballet and kathak growing up. She later studied postmodern dance (and molecular biology) at George Washington University, and today she dances with the Abhinava Dance Company in Bengaluru, India.<\/p>\n

Varadan took a moment to talk about her viral hybrid videos, her creative process, and how Indian classical dance is perceived in the West.<\/p>\n

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View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A post shared by Radha Varadan (@radha.varadan)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

What inspired you to bring ballet and kathak together?<\/strong>
As a young student, I found the artistry my ballet teachers would compliment me on was coming from kathak, and my use of \u00e9paulement in kathak was coming from ballet\u2014they complemented each other. But at the same time, I felt this divide. I got the sense that I looked a bit too different to be a white swan in a corps de ballet, and I had lines which were sharper than other kathak dancers. It wasn\u2019t until recently that I embraced both sides and became comfortable with having a different look.<\/p>\n

You have reinterpreted <\/strong>Odile\u2019s variation<\/strong><\/a> from Swan Lake <\/em>and <\/strong>Kitri\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>variations<\/strong><\/a> from Don Quixote<\/em>. What drew you to those roles?<\/strong>
The word \u201ckathak\u201d comes from the Sanskrit term \u201ckathakar<\/em>,\u201d which means \u201cthe storyteller.\u201d I\u2019m drawn to these characters because they have these stories that are so fantastical and yet so human. The same is true of kathak\u2014it revolves around mythological stories. I\u2019m drawn to these characters because of their stories and how I can use my body to tell these stories in a different way.<\/p>\n

How do you approach your reinterpretations?<\/strong>
I\u2019ll internalize the variation and deconstruct it. There are moments I like to get right, like the movements of Kitri\u2019s fan or certain body positions. I\u2019ll map out directions and what the body is doing. Once I have the skeleton laid out, I piece it together. It\u2019s not really the movements that come first, it\u2019s about how you\u2019re using the space to convey that story.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Radha Varadan (@radha.varadan)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Are there misconceptions about Indian classical dance in the West that you would like to challenge?<\/strong>
I\u2019m actually working on a project that examines how choreographers from the 17th and 18th century mined India for themes for ballets. The most famous is La Bayad\u00e8re<\/em>. The term \u201cbayad\u00e8re\u201dwas the name given to the devadasi, the temple dancers of India. The British outlawed Indian classical dance, but at the same time, the devadasi were made into caricatures in ballets.<\/p>\n

In the West, there is a hierarchy where ballet is heralded as the purest art form. I believe education and exposure will help us overcome this hierarchy.<\/p>\n

Are there other ballet variations you\u2019d like to adapt?<\/strong>
Esmeralda is one I want to do, and Aurora. And [I just posted a solo<\/a>] from La Bayad\u00e8re<\/em>\u2014it has a complicated history, but I think there\u2019s power in reclaiming that and saying, \u201cThis is what it should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Radha Varadan (@radha.varadan)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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The post Meet Radha Varadan, the Kathak Dancer Reinterpreting Classic Ballet Variations<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radha Varadan\u2019s ingenious reimaginings of some of ballet\u2019s most famous variations using kathak, a form of Indian classical dance, have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}