Background
Pavaani Thannimalai Pillai started her Bharathanatyam journey when she was 8 years old. She was sent to the dancing school by her parents due to her own interest and passion on the dance. She start learning Bharathanatyam under Guru, Ms. Sasikala. Pavaani was a fast learner. Therefore, she had done with her Salangai Poojai (First Staging Performance) and earned the award as Best Child Dancer after 2 years. She started to perform for many prestigious performances in Penang, Malaysia. Due to unavoidable reason, she had to stop from continuing the dance class. However, she continued to practice on her own and performed in many places because of her love towards Bharathanatyam. She had done numerous marvelous performances for major events in her University while pursuing her Bachelor Degree.
Pavaani’s great passion on the dance brought her back to the dance academy in September 2005 after completing her Bachelor of IT Management in University of Malaya (UM, KL). She was successfully done with her Salangai Poojai (for the 2nd time) on 1st Jan 2006. She was able to perform for her Salangai Poojai within 3 months after returning to her dancing school. She learned 7 songs in a month as the preparation for her Salangai Poojai. Pavaani made a history in her dancing field and earned the title of Stellar Performer of the event. She continued giving fabulous performances all around Penang while preparing for her Arengetram (Graduation Performance). Besides, she was receiving intensive trainings from her Guru from India to update herself with the syllabus in India. Finally, she had successfully completed her course and done with her Arengetram on 18th May 2008 in Dewan Sri Pinang while pursuing her Master of Science (Computer Science) in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM, Penang). She did solo performance for her Arengetram and performed 9 songs, non-stop for 2 hours continuously. She earned the title as Professional Dancer and Certified Teacher of Bharathanatyam.
Her dance journey did not stop there. She started with her own dance group in August 2008. She named her dance group as BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya on June 2009. She is training her dance group aggressively to be professional dancers by following syllabus from India. She travels to India to get the updated version of syllabus to enhance her dancing and teaching skills. Pavaani is conducting dance classes in Penang, Malaysia.
Bhaava (Bhaavam) means facial expression, Narthana means Dance, so BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya is a dance academy that emphasizes facial expression in the dance. The students are trained to dance with full of facial expression, just like Guru Pavaani.
Pavaani’s great passion on the dance brought her back to the dance academy in September 2005 after completing her Bachelor of IT Management in University of Malaya (UM, KL). She was successfully done with her Salangai Poojai (for the 2nd time) on 1st Jan 2006. She was able to perform for her Salangai Poojai within 3 months after returning to her dancing school. She learned 7 songs in a month as the preparation for her Salangai Poojai. Pavaani made a history in her dancing field and earned the title of Stellar Performer of the event. She continued giving fabulous performances all around Penang while preparing for her Arengetram (Graduation Performance). Besides, she was receiving intensive trainings from her Guru from India to update herself with the syllabus in India. Finally, she had successfully completed her course and done with her Arengetram on 18th May 2008 in Dewan Sri Pinang while pursuing her Master of Science (Computer Science) in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM, Penang). She did solo performance for her Arengetram and performed 9 songs, non-stop for 2 hours continuously. She earned the title as Professional Dancer and Certified Teacher of Bharathanatyam.
Her dance journey did not stop there. She started with her own dance group in August 2008. She named her dance group as BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya on June 2009. She is training her dance group aggressively to be professional dancers by following syllabus from India. She travels to India to get the updated version of syllabus to enhance her dancing and teaching skills. Pavaani is conducting dance classes in Penang, Malaysia.
Bhaava (Bhaavam) means facial expression, Narthana means Dance, so BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya is a dance academy that emphasizes facial expression in the dance. The students are trained to dance with full of facial expression, just like Guru Pavaani.
Expertise Area:
Pavaani is a professional and mind blowing dancer. She is a certified teacher in this field. She had mastered the dance in 5 years with official training from her dance master. Meanwhile, she has 22 years of experience in the field of Bharathanatyam as an excellent choreographer and marvelous dancer.
She is an expert on the followings:
1. Adavus - basic steps of the dance
2. Mudras - Hand Gestures used in the dance to convey messages according to the song lyrics that the dance is being performed for.
3. Abinaya - Face Expressions to show the feelings and also characters that are described in the song. This is aligning to the lyrics of the songs.
4. Songs – Choreograph and perform the dance based on the songs given by combining adavus, mudras and abinaya.
Pavaani is well known for fast-moving dance performances. She is given the name as the Queen of Expression for her dance. On top of it, Pavaani is capable of performing other form of Indian Classical Dances such as Kathak, Kuchipudi, Kathakali etc based on the basic elements that she had learned from Bharathanatyam. Besides, she had choreographed and performed for the fusion music “Dancing Feet”. She choreographed the song by combining Bharathanatyam and Kathak steps for the stellar performances. She had also choreographed Semi Classical dance for the Taalam Song – Enge En Punnagai with fast beat music (Taal in Tamil – Bollywood Song) for one of the competition in her company. She is the champion of the event. She is preparing and also in progress to give the best in the world of dance in the future.
Pavaani had given several speeches about Bharathanatyam to the International Toastmasters members. She had presented the paper “Bharathanatyam – Classical Dance Of The Ancient Tamils”. This paper was presented by Nirmala Ramachandran at First International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1966. Pavaani had received numerous excellent feedbacks from the audience for this paper presentation.
Pavaani is qualified as a Professional Dancer and Teacher. She is currently training her group to be a professional Indian Classical Dancers. As a qualified professional dancer, Pavaani will continue performing Indian Classical Dance in events like Shows, Concerts, Government and NGO Events. She will be conducting more workshops and seminars about Bharathanatyam. Her ambition is to popularize the dance to the whole world and bring up Bharathanatyam to the level, where it is well recognized by everyone from all over the place in the world.
BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya is a member of Association of Bharathanatyam Artists of India (ABHAI) and Malaysia Barathanatya Dance Association.
She is an expert on the followings:
1. Adavus - basic steps of the dance
2. Mudras - Hand Gestures used in the dance to convey messages according to the song lyrics that the dance is being performed for.
3. Abinaya - Face Expressions to show the feelings and also characters that are described in the song. This is aligning to the lyrics of the songs.
4. Songs – Choreograph and perform the dance based on the songs given by combining adavus, mudras and abinaya.
Pavaani is well known for fast-moving dance performances. She is given the name as the Queen of Expression for her dance. On top of it, Pavaani is capable of performing other form of Indian Classical Dances such as Kathak, Kuchipudi, Kathakali etc based on the basic elements that she had learned from Bharathanatyam. Besides, she had choreographed and performed for the fusion music “Dancing Feet”. She choreographed the song by combining Bharathanatyam and Kathak steps for the stellar performances. She had also choreographed Semi Classical dance for the Taalam Song – Enge En Punnagai with fast beat music (Taal in Tamil – Bollywood Song) for one of the competition in her company. She is the champion of the event. She is preparing and also in progress to give the best in the world of dance in the future.
Pavaani had given several speeches about Bharathanatyam to the International Toastmasters members. She had presented the paper “Bharathanatyam – Classical Dance Of The Ancient Tamils”. This paper was presented by Nirmala Ramachandran at First International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1966. Pavaani had received numerous excellent feedbacks from the audience for this paper presentation.
Pavaani is qualified as a Professional Dancer and Teacher. She is currently training her group to be a professional Indian Classical Dancers. As a qualified professional dancer, Pavaani will continue performing Indian Classical Dance in events like Shows, Concerts, Government and NGO Events. She will be conducting more workshops and seminars about Bharathanatyam. Her ambition is to popularize the dance to the whole world and bring up Bharathanatyam to the level, where it is well recognized by everyone from all over the place in the world.
BhaavaNarthana Naatyalaya is a member of Association of Bharathanatyam Artists of India (ABHAI) and Malaysia Barathanatya Dance Association.