Across Continents, Rooted in Tradition: Jothi Raghavan

In 1974, a young Bharatanatyam dancer travelled to the United States to join her engineer husband as a young bride. This was a story that would be repeated many times in the days after immigration laws were passed to help the US bring in trained scientists and other professionals to meet its growing need for such talent. It also meant that many dancers and other artists from India took up permanent residence there during the second half of the twentieth century.

Settling and making their homes in various parts of the sweeping nation, these artists, each working independently of the others, were to change the landscape of the Indian dance scene in North America over the next few decades. Many of them are now retired or nearing retirement.

They leave behind scores of trained dancers who continue to nurture the desi communities that have grown up in places from California to New Jersey, from Texas to Massachusetts, and many others in between. Many of these teachers and their students have, over the years, formed a symbiotic relationship with the Chennai Margazhi season and the dance festivals that proliferate in the USA. Today, we see scores of these dancers both on stage and in the audiences there.

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