Kalakshetra

The Kalakshetra Foundation is an Indian Cultural Academy for the preservation of traditional Indian art, especially music and dance.

The word Kalakshetra is composed of the Hindi words for art and Kala Kshetra for field, place or location, that can be translated as the place of art. The organization was founded in Adyar of Rukmini Devi Arundale and George Arundale, two Theosophists, on January 6, 1936 on the grounds of the Theosophical Society Adyar ( Adyar -TG). Initially called the organization The International Academy of Arts, later became established the name Kalakshetra, from which eventually arose Kalakshetra Foundation ( KF).

The main character and President of KF was Rukmini Devi Arundale, which the classical indian dance Bharat Natyam evolved, thus revived and attractive to a wide audience made ​​. Thus, they revolutionized the Indian dance scene. From an initial dance school starting, the whole thing grew into an arts and cultural center of national interest. 1962/63 moved by the KF Thiruvanmiyur, a district of Chennai, where she ( 2006) is located today.

Organizationally, the KF is divided into:

• Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts - The real art academy, in which among others Music, dance, painting and artistic skills are taught.
• Besant Cultural Centre Hostel - The boarding school for students with house mothers and teachers.
• Craft Education and Research Centre - A spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing and sewing for the production of, most artistically valuable, pieces of clothing, such as saris. Here, the costumes are also, often after antique models, tailored for the dance performances.
• Besant Arundale Senior Secondary School - was established in June 1973 as a secondary school.
• Besant Theosophical High School - A classic university to take a degree alongside his art studies to.

Although the KF was more than 25 years under the direct influence of Adyar -TG and the founder and president of Rukmini Devi Arundale was Theosophist, Theosophical themes now play no role, although, of course, there is still a particularly close relationship to Theosophy. This alone is already through the naming of the individual schools clearly, for example, in honor of Annie Besant, a former president of the Adyar -TG. The teaching is based on the pedagogy of Maria Montessori, which from 1939 to 1949 among others also worked for the KF. In Kalakshetra Foundation Act 1993, the Indian Parliament stated that the KF an "institution of national importance " performing. Today ( 2006) is one of the KF to the best and most respected institutions for Indian dance and music.