The Kishna brothers are perhaps from a modern egg of conception entirely. They drink expressos. They enjoy fashion; the name Gucci strikes a chord. They opt for pure vegetarianism and, claim to be free spirits. No relationships, except the one with their art — bharathanatyam. In the city recently, in preparation for their upcoming performance this month, ‘Art of Issai Vellalar — Rewind Tradition’, they opened up about a ‘soul connection’ with classical dance and why the world needs a taste of Indian tradition every once in a while. “We like to call ourselves ambassadors of Indian culture,” says Ram Kishna, co-founder of the Tanjore Quartet Foundation. “Yes, people abroad know Bollywood, but they don’t know our traditions,” his brother Suresh pipes in. “And we are not interested in Bollywood,” Ram makes a face. Ironically, the brothers are based in Holland and were raised in South America. Although trained intensively in India by their guru Krishnamurthy Kittappa Pillai and having performed here before as part of festivals, this will be their debut show on their own. Ram says, “We did come to Chennai last year to see for ourselves what the classical dance stage was like, but it was a little disappointing,” he confides. “The music, dance and singer often don’t come together. It’s like three different performances with little cohesion. That was one of the great strengths of the old school quality of teaching methods — everything came together as one.” Another highlight of last year was the duo’s project, ‘Hi Fashion Indian Dance’, back home in Amsterdam. Suresh takes the lead on this one, “We took the story of Rama and Seetha and created a mystic world for the audience. The costumes were metallic, inspired by Star Wars...,” he surprises us. “A lot of people told me they never knew about the Ramayana epic until this point.” (Performances will take place on January 7 at Auroville and January 9 at Gnana Mukunda Priya Sabha, T Nagar. For details, contact 9790752912)
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