Bernard Shaw once said, "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature. "He could well have been talking about Sivakumar, of TFL, Chennai, who has a purpose in his life and has been working towards it for as long as he can remember.

His passion? Dance. He breathes it constantly, and is among the few young male dancers with the ability to perform and teach simultaneously. For over 12 years, Sivakumar has been performing and teaching with distinction.

For eight years he learnt his art from Guru Kalaimamani Chandra Dandayuthapani, before moving on to a diploma course in Nattuvangam for two years, thanks to a scholarship from Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram under the guidance of Guru Bhagavatulu Seetharama Sharma.

Not stopping with that, he also did an advanced course on nattuvangam under the guidance of Guru Natyacharya Narasimhachari and has, since then, been performing in many city sabhas, government cultural festivals, melas and workshops all over India.

Among his many outstanding performances are the ones at the Tourism Dance Festival at Mamallapuram, The Annual Cultural Festival of ABHAI ( Association of Bharathanatyam Artists of India ) where he is a committee member, and the Delhi Tamil Sangam. Apart from that, Sivakumar has also choreographed dance ballets like 'Ramakrishna Charitham', 'Panchali Sabatham'. 'Vande Mataram' and 'Shiva Thandavam'.

Sivakumar's insatiable passion for dance has led him to his current learning of the finer nuances of the art from Guru Smt. Malathi Srinivasan.

Sivakumar also runs a dance school called 'Shivakalalayam' at Chennai, where he trains artistes in Bharathanatyam. He now has plans to bring dance, especially Bharathanatyam, into the international limelight.

Recently, Sailaja, a student of Sivakumar, performed at the VDS Arts Academy in Chennai. The Varnam as well as most padams performed were compositions of her Guru, for who the performance was a sishya's Guruvandanam.

Another heartening event, at the Rani Seethai Hall Auditorium in Chennai was the Bharathanatyam debut, or arangetram, of Lavanya Sukumar and Vandana Vijayakumar. They were the first disciples to be presented on stage by Priyadarshini Govind, a committed performer, representing the Vazhuvoor school of this dance form. Both girls gave evidence of good training, their styles complementing each other perfectly.