Veteran Bharatanatyam Dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy Passes Away At Age 84

Yamini Krishnamurthy, a distinguished Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi dancer, passed away at the Apollo Hospital on Saturday at the age of 84.

“She was suffering from age-related issues and was in the ICU for the last seven months,” Yamini Krishnamurthy’s manager and secretary Ganesh told PTI.

Yamini Krishnamurthy’s body will be brought to her institute, Yamini School of Dance in Hauz Khas, at 9 am on Sunday. The details of her last rites are yet to be finalized.

Yamini Krishnamurthy is survived by two sisters.

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Born on December 20, 1940, in Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district to Sanskrit scholar M. Krishnamurti, she began dancing at the age of five at the Kalakshetra School of Dance in Chennai, where she was trained by the legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Yamini Krishnamurthy, who was also skilled in Kuchipudi, broadened her expertise by studying Odissi under renowned teachers like Pankaj Charan Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra.

In addition to her dance training, she also studied Carnatic vocal music and the veena.

Yamini Krishnamurthy was honored with the Padma Shri at the age of 28 in 1968, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016. She was also awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977.

Veteran dancer and one of her earliest students, Rama Vaidyanathan, praised her for bringing “power, beauty, and glamour” to Bharatanatyam.

“Bharatanatyam is not going to be the same without her…. She was so focused and dedicated to classical dance. I am so fortunate to have been her first student almost 40 years ago. She added the star quality to the dance form,” Vaidyanathan told PTI.

Yamini Krishnamurthy was wholly dedicated to dance, as if she were “haunted by the dance inside her,” Vaidyanathan noted.

She recalled a train journey with Yamini Krishnamurthy, where she was astonished to find her sitting in the dark, deep in thought about a dance composition while everyone else was asleep.

“I remember once we were travelling by train. I was in the upper berth and she was in the lower berth. In the middle of the night, I woke up. Everyone was sleeping and I could see her sitting there in the darkness, composing something. She was doggedly and feverishly dedicated to Bharatanatyam,” the 57-year-old said.

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Condolence messages flooded in on X.

Former Rajya Sabha MP and Bharatanatyam dancer Sonal Mansingh remarked that Yamini Krishnamurthy “blazed like a meteor in the sky.”

“Just got the sad news of the passing away of India’s great dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy, Padmabhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee. She blazed like a meteor across the sky, the firmament of the Indian dance art. She was my senior. We all looked up to her,” Mansingh said in a post on the microblogging platform.

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also expressed his condolences to Yamini Krishnamurthy on X.

“I’m deeply saddened to hear of the demise of Yamini Krishnamurthy garu, the celebrated exponent of Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam. My thoughts and prayers are with her family in these difficult times,” he said.

Renowned Kuchipudi duo Raja and Radha Reddy stated that Yamini Krishnamurthy has “attained the moksham at the feet of Nataraja.”

“The Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi Prima Donna Yamini Krishnamurthy has attained the moksham at the feet of Nataraja the lord of dance…. A colossal loss to the dance world…. RIP dear friend Om Shanti,” they said in a post on X.

Another Bharatanatyam exponent, Jayalakshmi Eshwar, said: “She made the dance form known globally, especially in the north. She was the most fantastic dancer with her beautiful expressions. It’s very sad. I have been to her classes a few times. I was her junior at Kalakshetra and the few times I met her she called me to take her practice, that gave me a lot of confidence as a young dancer. She was a very loveable and affectionate person.”  The Sangeet Natak Akademi also took to its official X account to express condolences and mourn the passing of Yamini Krishnamurthy.

“Sangeet Natak Akademi and its associate bodies deeply mourn the sad demise of Yamini Krishnamurthy, a leading Bharatanatyam exponent, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow, and Padma Vibhushan Awardee, who passed away today. Heartfelt condolences to the bereaved ones and prayers to the Almighty to give them enough strength to bear this irreparable loss,” it said.