"I come from a no dance background and now I'am confident of doing a complete show on my own," quips P.S.Swarnamalini a 1st year M.A Natya student of M.G.R. Janaki College for Women. This college is the pioneer to introduce a 5year integrated course in Performing Arts (Natya) which includes Dance, Music, Theatre and Yoga. With a Bachelor's degree for 3years and a Master's for 2years, famous dancer Dr.Padma Subrahmanyam is the brain behind the whole syllabus.

Learning arts which was always considered as an after-school learning factor for an hour or two has now evolved as a separate course recognized by the University of Madras. Says Rajashree Vasudevan, Head of Department of Natya which is now five years old, "We wanted to provide a systematic and a logical way to learn arts. A dance course which has always been only a diploma so far has now taken a place as a full time course itself, which adds more value to it. Details are extracted from the ancient history, scriptures and texts and are then taught to the students. This will help them to know why such a scene or expression is done."

This course gives an equal balance to both theory and racticals and emphasis is given only to dance and drama. The students also have allied papers and research papers which they will have to do based on their area of interest in the field of arts. "Students will be taught exhaustively on the Cultural history of India, Art and Architecture, Indian Philosophy, Nattuvangam etc."

During the course, each and every student will be learning the A-Z of running and conceptualizing a whole show or a programme. Starting from costume designing to audio balancing, they learn lighting, stage presentation, event management, scripting for theatre, writing dialogues and choosing characters, timing, make-up, jewellery making, and choreography for classical and folk art forms.

The eligibility criterion is only a 12th pass and the student need not even know dance as everything will be taught from scratch. The whole department has only strength of 10 students. Reason for fewer takers? "Parental pressure is the major problem here. Many parents would want their child to take up only a professional degree as the employment opportunities are quite more. Though many children would be interested in learning dance and music, many parents need to be blamed here." With this course gaining more exposure and strength, at the end of the final year a student is capable of starting their own dance school and will also be able to conduct workshops on arts.

Keerthi Kumar, a student of Natya says, "I have got many chances to perform at many functions. We also got the wonderful privilege to perform at the Chennai Sangamam. I personally got an opportunity to perform abroad at Canada, Bangkok and many other places. Thanks to the Natya Course!"

So if you are aspiring to get a degree in Performing Arts, this is the right place for you to be!

Anitha.R