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- March 21, 2007
Taking large steps on the path to diversity
Classic Indian dance master has been
tireless in promoting Asian culture, forging bridges
by Nicholas Keung
Immigration/Diversity Reporter
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Hari
Krishnan has taught hundreds of students of South Indian courtly
dance for 12 years, but the internationally renowned master of
the ancient Bharatanatyam style will only celebrate his first
graduate this June: Nalin Bisnath.
That says volumes about the kind of professional – and
perfectionist – the Toronto artist is.
Born in Singapore to a dancer father, a vocalist mother and a
musician brother, Krishnan fell in love with this unique
classical-dance style as a toddler and debuted on national
television in India at age 5.
After years of training under different masters, he came to
Canada in 1991 to study linguistics and Asian studies at the
University of Manitoba to "make my parents happy" – and to
pursue a full-time career as a dancer.
Indian dance was then an exotic genre in Winnipeg's arts
community.
"I don't believe in stereotypes and I don't like to be called
ethnic, exotic and foreign. It's just the idea that whenever
something is not Western, it's considered less," said Krishnan,
37, who ultimately moved to Toronto in 1997 to pursue a
post-graduate degree in dance at York University.
His tireless devotion to promoting and experimenting with
Bharatanatyam dance has earned him the 2007 New Pioneers Arts
Award.
Raised in Singapore's multicultural society, where he was
exposed to Chinese opera, ballet, symphony and Broadway-style
shows, Krishnan immediately felt at home in Toronto.
"My goal is to make bridges with the other cultures and make my
own accessible to others, especially in Canada, given its
diversity and cultural freedom and support," he explained. "This
is not about having everything taken over by diversity. At the
end of the day, it's about celebrating excellence in any chosen
art form."
The growing influence of the South Asian community has helped
raise the profile of Indian cultures and arts, but Krishnan says
he and other minority artists still battle cultural stereotypes.
"It's getting better these days. But there's still this mindset
that, once I've seen one Indian dance, I've seen it all. There's
still a lack of differentiation and appreciation of the
diversity and subtlety in each genre."
Krishnan founded his company, inDance, in 1999 and has been a
visiting dance professor at Connecticut's Wesleyan University
since 2000. His experimental and vintage choreography has been
performed at international venues such as New York's St. Mark's
Dance Space, London's Royal Opera House and Washington's
Smithsonian Institution.
Recently, he co-founded The Mangala Initiative, a non-profit
Canadian organization to offer financial aid to disadvantaged
female artists in South India.
