The 29 year old received the award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, one of the oldest and prestigious sabhas in the city's classical music and dance circuit, on December 13 at the inaugural function of it's annual music and dance festival.

Expecting her first child in just a few days, Srinidhi talks to KutcheriBuzz on her work and her plans.

How do you feel about getting the Nritya Choodamani?
It's very exciting. It's something I have watched happening each year from the time I was a little girl - and all the great names in dance have figured in the list. It is something like a roll call of fame!

It also brings with it a responsibility to live up to it specially since I think I would be the youngest to receive it. I started dancing when I was 3 years old and have performed since 6, so I have been in this field for about 25 years and I am very, very happy to be chosen. It gives me the initiative to put in more effort.

What does dance mean to you? What is the destination of your journey in dance?
There is a lot of debate now over traditional themes. But my chosen path is traditional Bharathanatyam.

Bharathanatyam is something that's part of our culture and like a jewel or a silk sari that is an heirloom you don't change it. You preserve it.

Not that contemporary dance or experimentation is bad but some things are best preserved as they are. In fact I think there is a lot for me still to do in traditional Bharathanatyam.

But one never knows (in what areas one may want to work in the future).

What about the content of traditional Bharathanatyam? This seems to be an area that younger dancers are not comfortable with - the nayika longing for the Lord etc. is something that they say they don't relate to or agree with as part of their thinking.
The content is not really a sore point with me. Bharathanatyam was created as a temple ritual essentially as part of the 16 upacharas for God. And worshipping the Lord etc fall into place in this context.

I don't feel that this is removed from today's context. In fact some things don't go out of fashion - love between man and woman, between mother and child..... certain things don't change, the basic, core feelings are very much valid.

The reason people feel bored is that there is a tendency to stick to the same old interpretations. The same sancharis are repeated and imagination does not come into it.

If the dancers think they can come up with ideas to bring alive the item....

Tell us about your work as a doctor. You have voluntary organisation working on community health....
Medicine IS my profession. Dancing is something that I do because i enjoy it and because it gives me such satisfaction.

I specialised in Community Medicine and to do my work in the field of public health and research I have to gather data and do studies apart from seeing patients. My NGO - called Health First works in various areas of community and public health.

We have some projects and they are doing well so far. The first one is an AIDS awareness project that runs in 10 schools and 6 colleges in the city. It's been on for one year now and we did an evaluation of the effectiveness and found that the awareness levels of HIV were higher.

We have applied for an extension of time as we want to train two teachers in each school so that they can keep the message going. That is important in this field. We also want to extend it to more schools and want to continue counselling activities too.

Are you taking up any new projects?
Yes, we just started another project called Pudumai Penn. We work in a group of slums in the Chetput area. We are doing a nutritional survey and a social-demographic survey related to anaemia, domestic violence and reproductive health.

We also do anaemia screening for pregnant women and also do work related to their diet.

Srinidhi's Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is called Health First and operates from 3C, Eldorado, 112, Numgambakkam High Road, Madras - 600 034. Phones: 824 1424 or 827 0931, e-mail: health_first@usa.net and srinidhi2000@eth.net