Erina Kasai

献身、愛、そして想像力が吹き込まれた時、ほんの小さな始まりが影響力のある流れとなることに私は気づいたのです。
I realise how a small beginning, when imbued with devotion, love and imagination…can start a stream of influence.

   -Rukmini Devi

When Erina Kasai discovered Bharatanatyam, what she truly unlocked was a way of life. Unlike many classically trained dancers, she didn’t commence her practice as a young girl. In fact, she didn’t discover the dance at all until she was in her early twenties and searching for a deeper meaning; a more refined understanding of herself. 

At the time, she was living in the bustling city of Tokyo where she attended art college, worked as a graphic designer, and lived a life that streamlined the common “workaholic” culture that Japan is so notorious for- always punctual; always perfect. 

Her escape from this fast-paced, yet overly careful life, rested in the arts- specifically those that flourished in the East. She made an effort to stray away from the Western piano music that she’d grown up learning and instead delved into instruments with boundless creative control, like the horn dijurido and the djembe drum. 

Amidst exploring these global crafts, Erina got wind of a Japanese dancer who was performing Bharatanatyam on a tour throughout the country. Hoping to chisel another piece into her mind’s creative mosaic, she bought a ticket and attended the show. Hours later, as she emerged from the theatre doors, Erina felt an overwhelmingly intuitive connection. She was hooked. 

She immediately scoped out her city and found a teacher by the name of Machiko Lakshmi who was willing to take her in as a student. Her parents, on the other hand, she says, weren’t too keen on this new hobby, “They were really suspicious. They thought it was some kind of cult,” Erina says with a laugh. “I think they understood eventually, but they really worried at first. They didn’t know about Indian culture at all.” 

She packed her bags and headed to Chennai to study under the Dhananjayan family, who are students of Rukmini Devi and founders of the Bharata Kalanjali dance school. It was here that she laid her foundation in technique and built up the stamina necessary for her debut performance, officially marked in the calendars for February 3, 2007. 

Doubt, fear, and anxiety were some of the feelings that Erina reminisces on in the weeks leading up to the performance. “Everything that you study is put into the arangetram…Until the end, I was not really sure that I could do it because it’s two and a half hours and Bharatanatyam is such an intensive dance. You need lots of physical strength,” Erina says. “Every day I practiced for hours, but I always thought, ‘Really, do I have the strength to perform?’…It’s a solo performance so it’s all dependent on me.”

After nearly a year and a half of training, Erina took the stage at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mylapore, Chennai, just down the road from the colourful Kapaleeshwarar Temple. This performance, she says, was especially meaningful for the reason that she was accompanied by a live orchestra- something that, having treasured the art of music so greatly throughout her life, she had never had the opportunity to do in Japan. The band accompanied her through seven items, Ganesh Vandanam, Alarippu, Keerthanam, Varnam, Ashtapadi, Padam, and Thillana, as notable guests, such as dance critic Nandini Ramani and the consulate general of Japan, watched in awe. 

She successfully reached the end of her Arangetram performance after two and a half hours. The anxiety vanished, but along with it, so did a sense of completion, she says. “[After the Arangetram] most people are satisfied, but doubt came into my mind. I thought, ‘Do I really know Bharatanatyam well? I can dance, but can I teach? Can I truly tell others what Bharatnatyam is?’ It wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to study more.” 

Driven by a curious spirit, Erina seeked to continue her training at the world-renowned Kalakshetra Foundation. Adjusting to life in India up to this point, she says, was a challenge in and of itself, but life at Kalakshetra was an entirely magnified hurdle. Restricted to the school’s campus with little connection to the outside world, she struggled to fully adapt at first. The training was doable, exciting even, but the fact that she was one of the oldest students in all of her classes presented another point of discomfort. With time, however, came growth- friendships, knowledge and a deep appreciation for her environment. 

“Rukmini Devi started teaching dance under a banyan tree, so for morning prayer, we would pray under the banyan tree. It was so beautiful…There were some ridiculous rules,” she points out with a laugh. “But there were mango trees everywhere, different kinds of plants… peacocks even living on campus. In the morning, walking around, you could hear the music of somebody practicing. It was just so divine.”

It was here, while in Chennai, that Erina met her partner who was a local artist. After graduating, they moved to Taipei, Taiwan, a city with a small Bharatanatyam community, but one that was somewhat in between her home in Japan and his in India. Finally feeling confident in her knowledge, she funneled her wisdom into the Takadimi Academy- a self-founded school of dance with a mission to reveal the magic of Bharatanatyam in Taiwan.

“My policy of teaching dance here, my first priority, is to let students love and enjoy Bharatanatyam,” she says. “It’s not only dance…it’s not only physical movements- there is philosophy behind it, there is abhinaya, there are ancient stories. I want my students to enjoy dance, so I try to teach the beauty of Bharatanatyam.”

Pulling her from the hectic rush of city life and into a world of nature, patience and recognition of herself, the beauty of Bharatanatyam is exactly what captured Erina herself. Now, passing that on to others, she says, is her greatest goal. 

“I’ve learned that there are things that you cannot control,” she says. “There is so much difficulty in life, but once you enter theatre and watch a performance, that moment is so divine…Dance is just simply enjoying a moment. And that is so fragile.”