Christina Prakanthan grew up Christian in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her family went to church. They celebrated Christian holidays. But somehow, without any friction or contradiction, Bharatanatyam became as natural to her as breathing.
“The sounds we heard, the language we spoke, the music around us, the temple festivals, the food we ate, and the stories we listened to all naturally shaped our understanding of culture and aesthetics,” reflects Christina. While she had a strong Christian upbringing—convent school and all—she today embraces both traditions in a balanced way. Married to a Hindu, she and her family celebrate festivals and observe values from both faiths with mutual respect and harmony.
Her journey into Bharatanatyam began almost accidentally. Accompanying her elder sister Daveena to classes, young Christina, barely three, would stand outside imitating the movements. Her first teacher, the late Smt. Husseini Hariram, noticed and told her mother, “Why don’t you enrol this child as well?”
Christina remembers standing near the stage wings, crying before her first performance. “My mother was consoling me and encouraging me to go forward. I still have a photograph from that moment, holding flowers with tears in my eyes.”
That frightened little girl would go on to build one of Melbourne’s most respected Bharatanatyam schools—Natyatharu School of Dance—now marking 14 years in Australia.
Christina and her sister trained together for nearly 15 years under Dr Suryakala Jeevanandhan, performing across Sri Lanka and completing their arangetram together in 2002. Her mother, who never had the chance to learn dance as a young girl, poured everything into her daughters through sacrifice and love. Her father stood by them with quiet strength.
“I cannot imagine a life where dance is not part of me,” she says.
Daveena moved to America. Christina moved to Melbourne after marriage. But dance travelled with both. “The idea of Natyatharu was born during a conversation between my sister and me before I moved to Australia. We wanted to remain connected through the art form.”
When she arrived in Melbourne in 2012, she printed flyers from Officeworks, visited temples and Indian grocery stores, and personally distributed advertisements. “I hired a proper studio space even with very few students because I wanted to build the school professionally from the very beginning.”
Fourteen years later, Natyatharu is a living community. What makes Christina different from many dance teachers is her annual concert, titled Ādal, featuring her students—women balancing careers, children, homes, and everyday life.
“Children bring innocence and vibrant energy. Teenagers bring intensity. The mothers’ group brings maturity and emotional depth. Dance, to me, is like water. You can pour it into any vessel and it naturally takes that shape.”
The word Ādal comes from ancient Tamil references to dance and storytelling. “Twenty-five years ago, many of these things would have been dreams. Today, to see migrant women driving to class independently, balancing careers, raising children, and still pursuing art—that is very powerful.”
This year, Christina has arranged something ambitious. Her concert on June 20 will feature live musicians (nattuvanar, vocalist, percussionist, violinist), all Melbourne-based except a couple travelling from Sydney.
Most overseas dance schools use recorded music, but Christina says live music creates “an emotional dialogue that happens in real time. When musicians are physically present, breathing and responding alongside the dancer, that energy cannot be manufactured. Dancing with live musicians teaches listening, awareness, sensitivity, and timing in a completely different way.”
For Christina, Bharatanatyam is not simply performance. “Art teaches patience, humility, observation, discipline, and empathy.”
Living and teaching in multicultural Australia has also changed her approach. Children growing up here do not automatically inherit the cultural environment she experienced in Colombo. Teachers must help create those connections gently. “If I am teaching a piece about Lord Rama, I show them pictures, books, temple sculptures, and stories. Once children emotionally connect to what they are learning, the dance becomes meaningful.”
Christina runs her school full-time, yet every week still takes lessons from her guru, Dr Lakshmi Ramaswamy. Her grand guru, Smt. Chitra Visweswaran, once remarked: “A dancer should be like pickle. You must soak and soak in the art form for years before the true flavour emerges.”
Christina has never forgotten that.
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