A degree in business and a good position in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not stop Neela Ramanuja (Neelaji) from embracing music as her career. Coming from a family of musicians, she started training in Carnatic music at an early age of five. She enrolled herself for a degree in music in a reputed college in Mysore, India. She felt that the curriculum did not do justice to music and changed her major to Business. However, she continued training in Carnatic music privately at home.
After graduating with a Masters’ degree in Business Administration, Neelaji started working for the RBI. She entered a music competition hosted by her employer, where she was interviewed by Guru KittappaPillai. This started her career in singing and composing music for dance. She has collaborated with many dance teachers so far. “I have learnt so much from all the teachers. Some teachers have high creative standards and are very ambitious, and rightly so. They do not like repetitions; challenge me to compose new music and want to put up a new show every year. This has made me a better artiste and nurtures the creative side in me,” says Neelaji.
A combination of ingenious dancers and Neelaji’s need to deliver high quality inspirational music drives her to spend eight months in a year collaborating and composing original music scores. She travels with her troupe for the remainder of the year to the United States, France, Italy, Holland and Germany. She gets to take on interesting assignments with teachers abroad keeping her motivated. For example, in Germany, Neelaji composes music for Guru Rajyashree Ramesh. Her student’s Arangetrams are divided into four parts. Two pieces are traditional Bharatanatyam pieces and the other two pieces are native to German culture. Neelaji says, “The biggest challenge I have here, is to compose music to the German dance pieces. I don’t understand the lyrics but will still have to come up with music that goes with the theme.”
Neelaji recalls her excitement working with Gurus like Smt. M. Subhashini Vijay Santhanam. Subhashini has a unique theme decided for each of her student’s arangetram. No theme, music or choreography is repeated by another student. It is always new. Hence, Neelaji composes four to six, new, two hour pieces depending on the number of students performing their arangetrams each year. “Of all the Gurus I have worked with such as Asha Gopal, Madhushree Sethuraman, Suba Parmar, and Sudha Devulapalli, to name a few, no two Gurus are similar. They are magnificently unique and I am honored to be associated with each one of them”, she adds. “Arangetram in India and United States have a lot of difference,” says Neelaji. In United States young dancers learn Bharatanatyam only once a week and therefore take more time to complete their arangetram when compared to dancers in India. Dancers there are also more comfortable with live orchestra. The students here get only one or two rehearsals with the live orchestra before the day of the arangetram. It is very demanding on the student and the orchestra to match each other’s mood and rhythm.
In Bharatanatyam, music and dance are delicately intertwined. For a show to be successful both must achieve the highest quality. This makes singing for dance a challenging task. Neelaji has to keep learning and mastering new ragas. This enables her to compose new and exotic music for her audiences. She emphasizes a lot in mastering and excelling in the art. She says, “If I were to say something to a young person wanting to step into my profession, I would tell him/her to be sincere and hard‐working. Be on time, do your homework and be grateful. Do not run behind the money but concentrate in mastering the art and success will follow!”