Chennai's exclusive dance school for transgender community.
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Video Editor: Purendu Pritam
The Sathya Sai Dance Academy, helmed by the Kerala-based Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust along with the Sahodaran Foundation, offers dance classes in Bharatanatyam exclusively to the transgender community in Chennai.
Vaishali, who is an aeronautical enginee, Vaishnavi, who drives autos for a living, and Sambavi, who performs as a singer and actor, are just three of the many from the transgender community who are breaking the stereotypical notion that "transgender persons are either beggars or sex workers."
A dancer at Chennai's exclusive dance school for transgender community
Sambavi recounts her horrid experiences of being rejected when she expressed her interest to take up acting as a full-time career. In a world that is driven by money, it is difficult to pursue one's heart to work in a profession that gives them inner peace and satisfaction. She says, "Being a transgender, you know how things are even more difficult to follow our passion. But I will never let that bog me down."
Bharatanatyam is a complex dance form that is traditionally learnt since childhood, when a child is as young as five years old. However, age is no bar when you are passionate. Or is it?
A still of transgenders learning Bharathnatyam
Master Shanmuga Sundaram, a renowned Chennai-based Bharatanatyam teacher, seconds this. He said that he is bewildered everytime someone asks about his experience teaching the transgender community.
"Honestly, I don’t see any difference. I don't discriminate against them (transgender people) because of their gender. They are my students, and I am their teacher. I feel they are part of us. There is absolutely no need to see them differently," he asserts.
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