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Conscious Conversations with Padma Menon
Goddess Wisdom, Movement, Ascension + Embodiment with Padma Menon
The Soul Collective
In this episode I talk to Padma Menon about Indian dance and Philosophy. We talk a lot about spirituality and reaching out to the deities through dance. I never knew there was so much to it! Enjoy!
Rewilding Ep. 5 - Sacred Indian Dance as Embodied Philosophy
Open Div Podcast
Women Waken Podcast with Whitney Walker: Ancient Indian Goddesses, Traditions, and Wisdom
Padma Menon was a professional dancer and choreographer for over 30 years before she began to focus on offering dance as a personal spiritual practice. Beginning her career in India as one of India’s top classical dancers, she went on to create traditional and contemporary dance performances all over the world including Australia, Europe, and the United States. Padma has presented hundreds of performances at prestigious international festivals and received awards for her dance.
The reviews below are some examples of responses to her dance.
“Padma…simply dazzled the audience. A born dancer, Padma eschews the effusiveness that can at times even verge on the melodramatic, substituting explicitness in body contours, movements, and flying swiftness of footwork that yet retain the dance form’s typically feline grace.
The audience watched with bated breath, as Padma, lovely in golden yellow, danced with nonchalant ease and precision…the movements that vibrated from the toes right up to the neck in shimmering lines of glorious beauty were just entrancing.”
“Padma has established herself as a dancer of class through her effortless artistry. Beautifully refined as it was in both graceful movements and abhinaya, the recital also afforded the spectator the tantalizingly earthy flavour of lilting rhythm that is a striking and attractive hallmark of Kuchipudi.
[During the dance] she was visibly moved to tears—a sign of her having shifted into the boundless realms of intuitive artistry.”
“Padma Menon is a surprising artist, capable of rapid switches from humorous to intensely serious and spiritual moods…Padma Menon is inevitably a lotus in her garland of artistic treasures.”
“Menon’s great strength as a choreographer…is that her work doesn’t look like anyone else’s. She dares to be really different.”
“…images shocking and beautiful to ponder…”
“Padma Menon lets her Norwegian Goddess (dancer Gunvor Karlsen) go from sublime stillness to unrestrained overwhelming dynamism.”
“Splendid- beyond imagination…an entirely new way of collaborating with classical ballet!”
“Padma Menon’s Kuchipudi recital was remarkable for her refined artistry that combined repose and vivaciousness. This paradoxical blend heightened the characteristic Kuchipudi flavour of grace and nimble footwork.”
“Padma Menon has an incredible stage presence…she also has the rare gift of forcing an audience participation through sheer intensity of performance. One is surprised to find oneself ready to laugh, plead or even weep with the dancer who dictates these emotions almost at will as she effortlessly slips into the skin of the various roles she is required to perform…
She left viewers marveling at her sure technique and near flawless exhibition of footwork, but more importantly, it gave them for a couple of hours, an invitation to get out of themselves, to empathise so fully with the scenes on stage that the end, when it came, left them yearning for more. ”
“What is striking… is the way in which Menon pushes the traditional Indian dance vocabulary in ways that give the audience new insights into both Western and non-Western dance…
Because of its play with opposites and differences, [the dance] has a passion that eludes most choreographers trained in a Western tradition.”
“…a sublime experience…”
“uncompromising…controlled…evocative…”
“Outstanding!”
“Ophelia was one of the highlights of the International Holland Dance Festival- beautifully choreographed and danced, it dares to break out of convention to present something new and entirely valid.”