A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

and her husband also migrated to Holland
and along with their full time work started
a group for socio-cultural interactions.
The desire to dance was first kindled
when as a young girl she watched
Vaijyantimala dance in a film but the dream
could not be fulfilled as there was no
dance teacher in Suriname in those times,
and gradually as the pressure of establishing
business and family increased, the dream
became dormant and was awakened some
years later when they received a call from
a friend that a dance teacher required
a couple of hours in order to get a licence
to stay in Holland, Madhoerie still nurtured
the image of Vaijyantimala dancing
Bharatnatyam and decided to enrol her
six year old daughter in dance classes
but ended up taking the classes herself.
It was a kathak teacher. She was 31 at
that time and herself admits that it is
an age when established dancers start
considering to quit and settle into family
life.
She smiles and adds "then I could not
even differentiate between Kathak and
Bharatnatyam’’ but right after 3 classes
she felt this is not the same as Vaijyantimala
was performing and she mentioned it to
her Guru demonstrating roughly the
postures involved and what she wanted,
she was then told that what she was looking
for is Bharatnatyam. However she
continued the kathak lessons for three
years, initially with Guru Abdul Gaffoor
Kawa and continued with Shri Veeru, the
disciple of Pt. Birju Maharaj. The arrival
of Mrs. Chandrika Sundarraman in Holland
opened the gates of Bharatnatyam for
Madhoerie. She learnt from her but it
was a long distance to travel to and fro
and she was referred to a Dutch
Bharatnatyam dancer Mrs. Lizbeth Bennink
who stayed closer. Mrs. Lizbeth Bennink
made her start afresh as she felt that
Madhoerie had learnt in another style.
Though Madhoerie could already perform
some steps she followed her Guru's advice
and started afresh with great patience.
Later as Mrs. Bennink felt that her disciple
was learning very fast she took her to
her Guru Smt. Rajmani from Bangalore
who was living at Netherlands. Later when
she discovered that various deities like
Ganesh Vishnu and Shiva were associated
with Bharatnatyam and she could perform
the stutis and vandanas she exhilarated
in the feeling of being a catalyst in the
promotion of Hindustani culture.
Madhoerie performed her Arangetram
in 1987 only after six years of learning
Bharatnatyam. It is a common perception
that it takes about ten to twelve years
of dedicated practice to perform
Arangetram but this devoted dancer
accomplished it in a short span of six
years only. She gives the credit to the
constant support she received from her
husband Mr. Jagmohan. And since then
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