Beachcomber Magazine 07

 The teacher, Jaykumaren Iyasamy, has braved prejudice to open the dance to young men. Le professeur Jaykumaren Iyasamy a bravé les préjugés et ouvert la danse aux jeunes hommes. Before it all begins, before the singing, the music, the dance draw the limitless contours of another “universe”, the two masters and their pupils stand in a circle and address a prayer to the god Shiva Nataraja, king of dance, who created the world by performing a cosmic dance. Ta Ka Di Mi… Under the watchful eyes of Michèle, Jaykumaren beats the rhythm and guides the dance by reciting mnemonic syllables as he hits a wooden tablet with a stick. The bare feet of the dancers, adorned with anklets covered in tinkling bells, strike the ground in unison. In front of the ancient banyan, amid the giant bamboos, on the banks of the river, on the stone steps of an open-air gazebo, they execute strong, ethereal sculptural postures. In a half-seated position, the saris part, revealing exquisite silk folds. Grace is in every movement, prolonging this enchanted moment. THE NECTAR OF THE GODS As a magnificent coincidence, this May Sunday is a full moon. And we will be greeting it in the most ancient place of worship in Mauritius: the Kaylasson temple in Sainte Croix, built in 1854 by Indian workers who had come to work in the island. “The Dravidian culture is well rooted and very formal in Mauritius. The dance has not altered, and is experiencing something of a revival,” says Jaykumaren, head of Performing Arts at the Friendship College Girls in Goodlands, and dance teacher at MGI and the Mauritius Tamil Cultural Centre Trust. Initially performed in temples in India, the sacred dance was brought into disrepute in the palaces of the maharajas, where the devadāsī (servants of the gods) were treated like courtesans. Forbidden by the British colonialists, it was reintroduced thanks in particular to Rukmini Devi, who founded Kalakshetra, and who brought it back into favour by expurgating from the repertoire the poses deemed too suggestive. “It is still eminently erotic,”stresses Jaykumaren. “Love, both physical and spiritual, is the 

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