Age, Biography and Wiki

Muthuswamy Pillai was born on 24 October, 1921, is an An indian choreographer. Discover Muthuswamy Pillai's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 71 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Choreographer
Age 71 years old
Zodiac Sign Scorpio
Born 24 October, 1921
Birthday 24 October
Birthplace N/A
Date of death 1992
Died Place N/A
Nationality

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 24 October. He is a member of famous Choreographer with the age 71 years old group.

Muthuswamy Pillai Height, Weight & Measurements

At 71 years old, Muthuswamy Pillai height not available right now. We will update Muthuswamy Pillai's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Who Is Muthuswamy Pillai's Wife?

His wife is Valambal

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Valambal
Sibling Not Available
Children M. Thaiyanayagi, M. Balu, M. Charubala, Kalaimamani Kuttalam M. Selvam, M. Arumugam, M. Vijayalakshmi, M. Geetha, M. Sambandam, M. Nirmala

Muthuswamy Pillai Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Muthuswamy Pillai worth at the age of 71 years old? Muthuswamy Pillai’s income source is mostly from being a successful Choreographer. He is from . We have estimated Muthuswamy Pillai's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income Choreographer

Muthuswamy Pillai Social Network

Instagram
Linkedin
Twitter
Facebook
Wikipedia
Imdb

Timeline

1911

After his marriage to Valambal, daughter of Milagu Nattuvanar Ramaswami Pillai (1911-1991), he accepted to become a faculty at Nrithyodaya, the dance school of the film Director K. Subrahmanyam in Madras.

He was also associated to the performing group of this school, Natana Kala Seva.

There, he was exposed to a fusion of various Indian classical dance styles and he could experiment with group choreography and dance dramas.

Similarly as other nattuvanars like Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and his foster father Vaitheeswarankoil Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Muthuswamy Pillai became a sought after choreographer for the film industry.

1921

Vaitheeswarankoil Sethuraman Muthuswamy Pillai (24 October 1921 – 18 January 1992) was a Bharatanatyam guru.

V. S. Muthuswamy Pillai hails from an hereditary family of musicians, dancers and nattuvanars.

When he was 5, after the death of his mother Sethuramu, his mother's uncle nattuvanar Vaitheeswarankoil Meenakshisundaram Pillai became his foster father.

Muthuswamy Pillai observed him when he was teaching or conducting dance, and also got initiated in various aspects of music.

He helped his foster father fulfilling hereditary temple duties: singing, reciting shollukatus and playing cymbals, and sometimes accompanying dance by devadasis.

He felt the stigma attached to the hereditary practitioners of the performing arts as they were given little respect when they performed with devadasis as a form of entertainment.

When he was 15, he moved with his foster parents to Madras, but after the death of his younger sister Muthulakshmi, he decided to leave and settle in Mayavaram where he became the disciple of Kattumannarkoil Muthukumara Pillai, a highly respected nattuvanar.

In his gurukul, he learnt the nuances of the art of bharatanatyam while he was taught a Margam (a sequence of dance compositions for the stage).

1940

He was the dance director for movies in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi from the 1940s until the middle of the 1960s.

He choreographed for more than 30 movies.

As the need for bharatanatyam choreographies was declining in the film industry, Muthuswamy Pillai was forced to enter a sabbatical period.

While his family was staying in the village of Kuttalam, he settled in a small place in 7, East Mada Street, Mylapore and focused on his art.

1970

He developed his creativity on European students, mostly French, who came to Madras in order to learn from him in the 1970s and 1980s.

They had to abandon the material comfort of their rich country of origin in order to live in Madras on small amounts of money even though some of them could rely on scholarships from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the French Government.

Many of them were given Indian names that most of them are still using after returning to Europe : Menaka, Shakuntala, Maïtreyi, Padmavati, Kunti, Kalpana, etc. Other of his students are known by their original names like Tiziana Leucci, Élisabeth Petit, Armelle Choquard and Dominique Delorme.

1989

In 1989, the Sruti Foundation organised the Parampara Seminar where eminent gurus from five bharatanatyam traditions demonstrated their art.

In this seminar, Muthuswamy Pillai demonstrated the style of his guru Kattumannarkoil Muthukumara Pillai and his own ideas.

Adavus are the basic steps of the bharatanatyam dance.

Muthuswamy Pillai is known for elaborating countlessly many new variations of adavus.

In some adavus families like Kutta (also named Ta-tai-ta-ha), he introduced variations of adavus that use only one hand.

He also explored symmetry and asymmetry in the body and the stage space.

The dancer may travel in any direction and may even turn their back to the audience.

He introduced new ideas in the Alarippu (which is the first dance items in a dance recital).

The most traditional choreographies of this item use only a reduced movement vocabulary.

While preserving the core structure of the Alarippu, Muthuswamy Pillai extended significantly the dance vocabulary used in this dance item.

As a master of rhythm, Muthuswamy Pillai choreographed using syncopated rhythmic patterns.

In some dance compositions, he used all the five gatis (or panch-nadais), demonstrating five different ways of subdividing the main pulse into 4, 3, 7, 5 or 9 subdivisions.

He used this procedure in different compositions, like the purely rhythmic Tala-Vadyam performed by his student Kalpana, or as Kalpanaswarams in the Kirtana Tamasam en swamy performed by Shakuntala.

Most of Muthuswamy Pillai's students had a separate guru for Abhinaya.

Several of his French disciples learnt Abhinaya from Kalanidhi Narayanan.