About Laasya
Welcome to Laasya School
Under the banner “Laasya School of Dance and Music’, Sridevi has been grooming innumerable students in this rich art form since 1995. Many of her students have completed their graduation under her able guidance and are teachers in the nearby areas. Laasya School of Dance and Music was established in Durham, NC back in 1995. Since then, the school has developed a reputation as one of the premier institutions teaching Bharatanatyam in this area. Laasya school is very proud of initiating a non-profit organization NATYA, run by senior students of Laasya to promote solo classical dances in the Triangle area.
“Sridevi akka”, as she likes to be addressed by all her students, teaches students from several age groups and is a household name in the Triangle Indian community and beyond.
About Guru
Sridevi Jagannath
Director Laasya School of Dance and Music
Sridevi Jagannath is a proficient Bharatanatyam dancer, an art which is one of the oldest and magnificent Indian Classical dance forms. Trained under great Gurus like Padmini Ravi and K.J. Sarasa, Sridevi has been a performer for over 3 decades. During the years, she had the privilege of improving her skills by taking the able guidance of distinguished dance teachers like Late Guru Smt. Bhanumathi, Guru Smt. Lalitha Srinivasan (Mysore Style). She is currently training under Natyacharya Smt. Shobana Balachandra and Padmini Ravi. Laasya reached the quarter century milestone in 2020. She has been a proud resident of Durham for the past 27 years.
Sridevi is not only a danseuse par excellence, she is a wonderful teacher that insists on students learning the fundamentals the right way from the get-go with a great emphasis on theory. In her 27 years of teaching, Sridevi has helped over 50 students complete their arangetrams thus far. She conducts workshops on a regular basis to reinforce concepts besides inviting guest artists from all over the world to ensure that her students get an opportunity to learn from the best.
Sridevi has performed in various parts of the U.S, Canada, Australia and India. Dance productions presented at various international levels are Krishna Bhakti Mala, Let Go, Ananya, MUDRA – The mark of an indelible woman, Dashavataram, Karnataka Navarasolasa, Yaatra – A Soulful Journey, Samatva – a project addressing the stigma surrounding mental health in the Asian communities just to name a few. Her collaboration project “Raja Simha”, inspired by The Lion King, received rave reviews by Triangle art connoisseurs. Also, she has partnered with her contemporaries in starting “Srishti – The Creation” a decade ago. This is an informal group of dancers who interact and perform on a regular basis to carry the tradition and dance form forward.
Bharatanatyam
BharataNatyam is one of the oldest dance forms of India. It was nurtured in the temples and courts of southern India since ancient times. Later it was codified and documented as a performing art in the 19th century by four brothers known as the Tanjore Quartet whose musical compositions for dance form the bulk of the Bharata Natyam repertoire even today. The art was handed down as a living tradition from generation to generation under the Devadasi system under which women were dedicated to temples to serve the deity as dancers and musicians forming part of the elaborate rituals. These highly talented artists and the male gurus (nattuvanars) were the sole repository of the art until the early 20th century when a renewal of interest in India’s of the art until the early 20th century when a renewal of interest in India’s cultural heritage prompted the educated elite to discover its beauty.
Sattriya
Sattriya, a 500-year old dance form devotional in nature is a huge proponent of neo-Vaishnavism.
It was introduced in Assam by the great Vaishnava saint and reformer of Assam, Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva in the 15th century A.D. He propagated the “ek sharan naama dharma” (chanting the name of one God devotedly). Unlike other classical dances, the Sattriya dance has been left untouched in this regard and has been the same since its birth. Under the patronage of Sankardeva, the social and religious group known as the ‘Sattras’ (Vaishnava maths or monasteries) formulated this dance to celebrate their beliefs which were embedded in Hinduism and its various teachings. It had its influences from folk dance forms like Ojapali, Devadasi, Bihu and Bodos etc.
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Awards and Accolades
Sridevi has received numerous accolades like Heritage India Award for excellence in teaching, Leadership Excellence Award from Pratham just to name a few. She was conferred the prestigious Aryabhatta International Award, by the Government of Karnataka in June of 2017. In 2018, she was conferred the Konark Nritya Ratna Award by the government of Orissa for which she traveled to Cuttack, India and performed for their festival.
