Golden Jubilee of Dr. Rathna Kumar’s Anjali Center for Performing Arts

HOUSTON: Anjali Center for Performing Arts — one of the earliest dance institutes in North America, founded by Dr. Rathna Kumar, celebrated its Golden Jubilee last Saturday, August 2, at the Stafford Centre with thousands of her patrons and well-wishers attending to witness the felicitations and dance performances by her past and present students. India’s Consul General D.C, Manjunath joined Ken Mathew, Mayor of Stafford; Carol McCutcheon, Mayor of Sugar Land; Fort Bend County Judge Juli Mathew to honor this cultural milestone.

CG Manjunath lauded the efforts of Dr. Rathna Kumar, in preserving and promoting India’s classical dance forms and nurturing young talent in the US over the past five decades. The evening featured mesmerizing Indian classicial dance performances.

Rathna Kumar started her dance journey as a 4-year-old, and her professional career as a performing solo dancer began at the young age of 9. She has performed all over the world at prestigious events and festivals, and venues such as the Téatre des Champs Elysée, Paris, France. She settled down in Houston, Texas, in 1975, where she established Texas’ first Indian dance institute, ANJALI Center for Performing Arts, also one of the first in North America.

Rathna is a reputed performer, choreographer, teacher, arts educator, and cultural ambassador. She is also a scholar, linguist, singer, public speaker and a published author, and has specialized in two classical dance forms, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, which she studied under renowned Gurus K.J. Sarasa and Vempati Chinna Satyam respectively. She has also studied Abhinaya under Mylapore Gowri Ammal and Kalanidhi Narayanan.

Rathna has trained over 3000 students from around the country, choreographed 36 productions and hundreds of
dances in several languages, and composed music for others. Her choreography transcends barriers of religion, geography, or language, which is what sets it apart. Her creative teaching methodology has been replicated by many younger teachers of dance who came to the US later.

She has developed the mirror-image method of teaching, which is very student-friendly. She is also the author of two books on the fundamental techniques of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, with a unique dance notation which she herself created. These books are being used by many teachers both in India and around the world.
Rathna, along with her Anjali Dance Company, has taken the traditional dances of India to cities all over the US, Canada, Mexico and the UK. She has been recognized 3 times as an Outstanding Teacher by the National Foundation for the Arts. One of her students won the Texas Young Masters Fellowship (2018) and became a 2019 Presidential Scholar for Dance (Bharatanatyam).

Rathna has served on the Advisory Boards of Miller Theatre, India Culture Center and Sri Meenakshi Temple, on the
Boards of Pratham USA, Indo American Charity Foundation and iEducate, has chaired the Mayor’s Arts Task Force on Cultural Diversity, and served as a dance panelist for Houston Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. The Houston Press Magazine has called her a “Jewel in the Crown of Houston Arts”. Rathna’s favorite quote – “Everything passes; Art alone, enduring, stays to us” (Agnes de
Mille). — Credits: CGI Houston, Anjali Center website.