Bharatanatyam dancer Divya Hoskere showcases a rare sensitivity to emotions in the songs

Divya Hoskere performing at The Music Academy’s 2025 dance festival
| Photo Credit: K. Pichumani

Divya Hoskere is a young Bharatanatyam dancer and academician. A disciple of P. Praveen Kumar, she is a PhD scholar at the School of Humanities at NIAS. Her broad area of research includes the study of the Natyashastra, Indian aesthetics and theatrical design.

Her scholarship is evident in the neatness of adavus and their perfect timing. She is light on her feet contrasting it with an azhutham — groundedness that defines modern-day Bharatanatyam. In fact, some jathis in the ‘Rupamujuchi’ padavarnam (Todi, Adi, Ramaswamy Dikshitar) covered the vast stage of The Music Academy (she performed at the 2025 dance festival), she managed the grounded touch as well. She is in control always, confident and energetic.

Praveen’s visualisations were interesting, nice ‘dhi thas’ in one, adding attamis in between another, karvais in the third and adavus in the fourth and turns in the last — small, sparkling touches. His idea of a pause to emphasise the emotion — of awe in ‘Roopamujuchi’, of confusion at his anger in ‘kopamu’ in the second part of the pallavi and again of sadness and facing troubles in ‘tapa traya’, was effective, but repeated thrice over, it lost some sheen.  

Describing Tyagaraja as the effulgent lord of the cycle of births and deaths, who is celebrated in a grand procession, was done with sensitivity. Especially the idol shaking according to the jerks of the palanquin bearers was well captured. 

Divya’s netra abhinaya was also notable; the awe in ‘Roopamujuchi’, when she sees the lord, to wide-eyed wonder in the charanam, ‘Marakoti sundara…’ when she realises that he is million-times better looking than Manmatha. As the pada varnam drew to a close, Divya kept up the mood by turning back repeatedly to catch one more glimpse of Tyagesa’s beauty. This sort of involvement makes a clinical varnam into a short sensitive story.

Of the abhinaya pieces, Meerabai’s ‘Main hari charan ki dasi’ was the warmer one, with the musicians and the dancer enjoying every moment of it. ‘Aligite’ (Husseini, Misra Chapu, Kshetrayya) felt a bit repetitive after the varnam. Divya finished with unflagging energy in the Valachi thillana (Adi, Dwaraki Krishnaswamy).

The dancer’s support system was impeccable: Praveen Kumar (nattuvangam), D.S. Srivatsa (vocal), Mahesh Swamy (flute), Vidyashankar N. (mridangam) and Mandya Nagaraj (violin).