Ripples in the Moves: Choreographing the group in Rukmini Devi’s
Pancāpsara sarōvara- The Lake of the five Water Nymphs

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Title

Creator

Publisher

The Department of Indian Music
School of Fine & Performing Arts
University of Madras, Chepauk
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India - 600 005

Date

June 2021

Format

Portable Document Format

Language

English

Type

Article

Abstract

Group choreographies in the dance form of Bharatanatyam was unheard of till the 1940’s though traditional dance-drama forms like Kuravanji nataka and Bhagavatha mela nataka existed as religious and court practises since the period of Chola and Vijayanagara empire in the 10th and 14th CE respectively. With the nationalistic vision and changing socio-cultural fabric during the pre-independence, Bharatanatyam, a solo dance form, began to be adapted to be presented on the proscenium by a few who took liberty to make innovations to its format.
This paper analyses the component structures, features and style of one such choreography in Sabari Mōkṣam, a dance-drama work of Rukmini Devi. The preliminary movement analysis is based on dance texts of Abhinaya Darpana. Movement analysis undertaken here involves interpretive discussion on the technique of Panćāpsara sarōvara, a scene that depicts the dance of five water nymphs under the surface of a lake. The paper shows how the scene offers a fantastic prologue to the unfolding drama through different strategies of choreography

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Dr. Radhika Puthenedam, “Ripples in the Moves: Choreographing the group in Rukmini Devi’s
Pancāpsara sarōvara- The Lake of the five Water Nymphs,” Smṛti - A Bi-Annual Peer Reviewed Journal on Fine & Performing Arts , accessed July 16, 2026, https://smrti.omeka.net/items/show/8.

Ripples in the Moves: Choreographing the group in Rukmini Devi’s Pancāpsara sarōvara- The Lake of the five Water Nymphs

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Ripples in the Moves: Choreographing the group in Rukmini Devi’s
Pancāpsara sarōvara- The Lake of the five Water Nymphs