Twenty-five years ago, Yumiko Tanaka opened in Japan her Institute for Bharatanatyam. On Monday she and her students will dance in a silver jubilee evening performance at Musashino Geino Hall, Mitaka. Two of her students will dance in Nakano Geino Hall on Dec. 19. "Bharatanatyam is the great cultural heritage of India. I am always promoting it," Yumiko said.
Her passion for Indian classical dancing and her devotion to study have resulted in the authenticity she shows. Yumiko lived and studied for eight years in south India, in Chennai when the city was still known as Madras. She is the first dancer from Japan to earn a master's degree in the Bharatanatyam classical dance.
Yumiko is an Osakan who at an early age, like many young people, wondered about the purpose of life. She said: "I found a book on Buddhist philosophy. Although I couldn't understand it at all well, something from it reached me. I began reading many books about India, and gradually turned toward Hinduism. I entered Otani University in Kyoto, where I specialized in Indology."