Master of Arts: A Life in Dance

Tulsi Badrinath

Hachette India, 312 pages, Rs. 599

VP Dhananjayan was one of the first men to make a successful career as a Bharatanatyam dancer. Up to the late 1960s, Bharatanatyam was almost exclusively the domain of women. It is only over the past 70 years, and to a great extent because of the efforts of versatile and innovative dancers like Dhananjayan, that more men have performed Bharatanatyam as men, without needing to impersonate women on stage. Weaving her own passion for Bharatanatyam with Dhananjayan’s story, Badrinath tells the compelling story of his life.