Written by Sommer Wagen, UHP Communications Intern
Photos courtesy of Sridhatri Guntipally
Sridhatri Guntipally is a first-year UHP student majoring in Human Physiology with a minor in Environmental Science, and you may have seen her perform with Ragamala Dance Company on the Carlson Family Stage at Northrop in February. Ragamala is an Indian dance company based in Minneapolis that specializes in Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form with origins in what is today the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Sri, who is an apprentice at Ragamala and has been dancing with the company since 2018, was pictured in The New York Times last year while in New York City for the debut of Ragamala’s newest production, Fires of Varanasi.
“I’m the youngest dancer, and I’m the least experienced, this isn’t going to be anything,” she remembered thinking when word that The Times would be at their dress rehearsal spread amongst her fellow company members. “But I’ll do my best because I don’t want to disappoint my dance teachers.”
Two days later, to her complete surprise, Sri found out in a text from one of her teachers that her picture was in The Times. She made sure to get a copy of that day’s issue, as well as take a screenshot of her teacher’s message, expressing how proud she was of her student.
“The best part of it was seeing how happy my teachers were,” Sri beamed. Something that is unique to Bharatanatyam is the close relationships formed between students and teachers, which often are lifelong and go beyond dance. In Sri’s words, it is, “kind of like osmosis; you’re so connected to [your teachers], and that’s how you learn.” She owes a lot of her success to her teachers at Ragamala, co-directors Aparna and Ranee Ramaswamy. “Their pursuit of excellence inspires me both in my dance and my schoolwork.”
Performing at Northrop was just as exciting for Sri, who danced with some of her professors and classmates—including those in the “Arts Exploration with Northrop” Honors NEXUS Experience—in the audience. Even after traveling twice between India and the United States that week, she was able to stay focused in the performance mindset with her fellow dancers. “I was on a different sleep schedule, but somehow it ended up working out!” she laughed.
Sri has been practicing Bharatanatyam since age 5, when she started taking informal lessons from a childhood neighbor. She completed her initial formal training in India with her arangetram, a traditional performance informally referred to as a “dance graduation.” It was not until she resumed practice in the U.S. that she discovered Ragamala, and she fell in love with the company and her teachers. Even though it meant starting from the basics to learn Ragamala’s unique style of Bharatanatyam, joining Ragamala helped to reignite Sri’s passion for dance. After two years of training with the company, she performed in her first show at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul in February 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now she is a regular performer with Ragamala.
“Dance was always something that I loved, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to do as a big part of my life until, I would say, five years ago. Ever since then it’s been as big a part of my life as school,” she said.
Sri’s involvement with Ragamala even influenced her decision to attend the U of M, since going to a local college meant she could keep practicing with the company, and also plays a role in what she’s currently studying. Her interest in Human Physiology stems from her fascination with injuries—a large source of both mental and physical stress for dancers—as well as her own experience with a shoulder injury she sustained in the past year. Her love for nature along with dance inspired her to pursue Environmental Science as a minor. An Honors Seminar she took last semester, HSem 3205H: Environmental Justice and Climate Futures: The Mississippi River Corridor, grew her love for nature through the context of her life on campus.
“I live in Middlebrook Hall, so that’s across the river from all my classes. I walk across that bridge every day and I look at the river every day. It really is an important part of my life, and that class helped me connect to it in a meaningful way.”
More generally, there are a lot of principles in Bharatanatyam that Sri applies to her perspective on life. In particular, she identified the concept of micro-adjustments, teaching one’s body to move the way it needs to instead of how it naturally wants to. This greatly contributes to the gracefulness and flow of Bharatanatyam, with its most experienced dancers being able to micro-adjust with remarkable speed.
“That’s kind of how we function as humans,” Sri explained. “We’re constantly micro-adjusting what we’re thinking about and how we’re going to be with others, because you accommodate different people and how you’re going to treat different people, things like that.”
Similarly, Sri thinks of dance as a sort of visual poetry. The choice a dancer makes in terms of movement is very similar to a poet's choice between words: specific movements convey specific moods. As an art form, the goal of Bharatanatyam is to use dance to communicate the emotions that define us as humans, from love, to hate, to death. “I really appreciate being able to practice [dance] on a daily basis because it’s just wonderful to be able to kind of incorporate how I see the world into my dance and share that with people. I just feel blessed to be able to do that.” she said.
Bharatanatyam is a versatile dance form, capable of conveying a broad range of human emotions. Similarly, Sri is excelling on multiple stages—as a dancer, a UHP student, a budding scientist, and as a nature lover. The common thread in all these ventures is Sri's deep love of what she does. In her New York Times photo we see strength, confidence, and grace, but this photo depicts more than a dancer. In Sri we find a glimpse of someone who embraces the diverse variety of people, situations, and emotions life has to offer—and of someone who has taken a long journey toward the confidence to do so. We are exceedingly proud of everything Sri has accomplished thus far, and we're looking forward to her future success in both Bharatanatyam and here at the University.