Editing Kalakshetra Foundation (section)

==Kalakshetra style==
Having studied the [[Pandanallur style]] for three years, in 1936 [[Rukmini Devi Arundale]] started working on developing her own, Kalakshetra, style of [[Bharatanatyam]]. She introduced group performances and staged various Bharatanatyam-based ballets.
[[File:Secretary Clinton, Leela Samson, and Ambassador Burleigh Enjoy a Bharat Natyam Performance (2).jpg|thumb|left|Bharatanatyam performance at Kalakshetra, during visit of [[Hillary Clinton]], 2011]]
The Kalakshetra style is noted for its angular, straight, ballet-like kinesthetics, and its avoidance of [[Recaka]]s and of the uninhibited throw (Ksepa) of the limbs.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

According to Sankara Menon (1907–2007), who was her associate from Kalakshetra's beginnings,<ref>{{cite news |title=Guru who inspired love (Sankara Menon's centenary at Kalakshetra) |url=http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/09/28/stories/2007092850930100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105072622/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/09/28/stories/2007092850930100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 November 2007 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> Rukmini Devi raised Bharatanatyam to a puritan art form, divorced from its recently controversial past by "removing objectionable elements" (mostly, the ''[[Sringara]]'', certain emotional elements evocative of the erotic, such as hip, neck, lip and chest movements) from the [[Pandanallur style]], which was publicly criticized by Indian dancer [[Balasaraswati|Tanjore Balasaraswati]] (1918–1984) and other representatives of [[Tamil Nadu]]'s traditional Isai Velalar culture. Love outside parameters considered "chaste" was not to be portrayed. Balasaraswati said that "the effort to purify Bharatanatyam through the introduction of novel ideas is like putting a gloss on burnished gold or painting the lotus". Lawyer and classical artist [[E. Krishna Iyer]] (1897–1968) said about Rukmini Devi, "There is no need to say that before she entered the field, the art was dead and gone or that it saw a renaissance only when she started to dance or that she created anything new that was not there before".