Drisyabharathi School of Dance

Our Story

Our Story
Doctor to Dancer
The founding story of passion
Dr Rajani’s journey from healing with medicines to appealing with dance

You are about to read a story of passion overpowering profession, a life story of rhythmic movements; a story of a doctor turning a dancer and acing it. Rajani Palakkal, a small town Kerala girl from Pookkad, Calicut, aspired to become a professional doctor from her early childhood. She spared no time during her school days for anything else but studies. With her hard work and strife, she became one, Dr Rajani Palakkal after completing Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery from the Calicut University in 1990. That was a proud moment not only for her modest family and friends but also for the whole village of Pookkad, as Dr Rajani Palakkal became the first and only Homeo doctor in the whole village then.

While she worked out her profession, she never left her passion fade. Her passion for dance, something that she had been practising from the fourth age. Her family and friends fondly remember how her Homeo clinic, adjacent to her home, used to bustle with patients and her dance students used to wait for her until she could come and teach them. She was an absolute professional, in her practices, both medicine and dance. A devoted Bharatanatyam and Kathakali student of Guru Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair at the age of four, little Rajani picked up lessons faster than her senior classmates and performed her debut at the age of eight. She was always a favourite of all her dance gurus’ for her impeccable learning skills and innate knowledge about rhythm and moves. Later, she continued her Mohiniyattam training under Kalamandalam Sarojam. Dr Rajani also practised Kuchipudi under Guru Rema Madhu.

As a professional doctor, she worked as a Research Assistant at Govt. Homeopathic Medical College, Calicut for two years, soon after her graduation. Then for eight years, she worked as a Medical Practitioner in Karuna Homeopathic Medical Centre, Calicut, re-joining the institute in 2005 as Chief Medical Officer after her UAE stint at New Apollo Polyclinic as Homeopathic Specialist.

Simultaneously, she attended as many workshops, conferences and seminars on various dance-related topics and was invited as a delegate in many prominent events across India. Being a noted danseur in her art form, she constantly got chances to tour the world and perform with her troupe at various locations. She is also noted for composing and choreographing a padam in Mohiniyattam performed by her students for the 80th birthday celebration of her beloved Guru Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair.

Decades of accolades won her dance school, Anjali Nruthamanpam accreditation and the prestigious Sreesankaracharya Puraskaram awarded by Sree Sankara Institute of Dance, Kalady for Mohiniyattam in 2007.

She’s has been an ardent practitioner of dance for over five decades now, and runs Drisyabharathi School of Dance at Birmingham, the United Kingdom with over a hundred students. She was recently recognised for her training capabilities by Oriental Fine Arts Academy of London (OFAAL), Europe’s leading examination board for the traditional South Indian Fine Arts for sending maximum students for the examination every year and succeeding in the same.

Dr Rajani, who now holds an MSc in Health Studies from the Wolverhampton University, UK wishes to continue her dance practice and training till she can, and share her knowledge of the art form to as many aspiring students as possible.

CURRICULUM

We, at Drisyabharathi, trains hundreds of students every year to participate in the OFAAL certificate examinations at various levels. Being an experienced training centre, Drisyabharathi ensures you not only qualify in each level but also prepares you with traditional knowledge about the art form to excel in them with flying colours. The systematic and disciplined approach we have towards the fine arts we teach adds to both the physical and psychological wellbeing of all our students.