Compiled by TAN SIN CHOW, BENJAMIN LEE and R. ARAVINTHAN
A LOCAL Barathanatyam teacher received a special award from the Selangor state government for her contributions to the art, Makkal Osai reported.
Srimathi Bavani Jegadeesan began learning the classical Indian dance when she was five. She had her ‘Salanggai Poojai ‘(worship of the ankle bells) at 10 and completed her ‘Aranggetram’ (full-length solo debut performance) as a trained dancer at 17.
Since then, she has trained more than 2,000 Barathanatyam dancers over the past 40 years.
The Sri Renganathar Baratha Kalalayam dance school founded by her has been an integral part of the Barathanatyam’s development in Selangor and Malaysia.
She and her students have brought the classical dance form to Indonesia, India and Myanmar.
Bavani received the state government’s honour during Anugerah Seni Negeri Selangor 2025 in Shah Alam.
She dedicated the award to her husband, Jegadeesan, and their two children, Ashwini and Kovarthini.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
