Rukmini Devi Arundale

Rukmini Devi Arundale trained initially in Western ballet before turning to Bharatanatyam at a time when the dance form — historically performed by devadasis attached to temples — had fallen under heavy social stigma amid colonial-era reform movements that conflated the art with the exploitation associated with the devadasi system. Rukmini Devi's own public performance of the dance in 1935, as a woman from a respected Brahmin family, was a deliberate and controversial act that helped reposition Bharatanatyam as a serious classical art worthy of study and respect rather than a practice to be suppressed. In January 1936, she and her husband George Arundale founded Kalakshetra in Adyar, Chennai, an academy built around the traditional Indian gurukula system, dedicated to preserving and teaching Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music, and related crafts. Kalakshetra's rigorous training system and repertoire — including dance-dramas she choreographed drawing on the Ramayana — shaped how generations of dancers across India and the world have learned the form. Beyond dance, she was also a committed animal welfare activist and was offered, but declined, the presidency of India.