New Blood for Ancient Art Forms : Choreography: Students unrelated to their teachers are performing East Indian dance and music. ‘Shivanjali,’ tonight in Irvine, exemplifies the trend.

Historically, East Indian classical music and dance practitioners passed their knowledge on only to family members. But as younger generations place their interests elsewhere, new students without blood ties to their teachers are gaining access to the ancient art forms.

Acclaimed instructor Guru S.K. Rajarathnam--whose two sons chose to be businessmen rather than dancers--is one of only six teachers still living who came up through the traditional system, says Rajarathnam’s longtime student Ramya Harishankar. Along with five fellow female students, Harishankar will execute her visiting teacher’s choreography tonight at Irvine Barclay Theatre. They will perform “Shivanjali,” a dance epic honoring Shiva, the Hindu God of dance.

“Lots of dancers from India have performed in this country,” said Harishankar, who runs the Irvine-based Arpana Dance Company, “but we very rarely have the opportunity to see artists who belong to this lineage.”

Rajarathnam, 62, will play finger cymbals and “conduct” “Shivanjali” by uttering rhythmic syllables, based on drumbeats, that serve as commands for the dancers’ intricate, syncopated footwork, Harishankar said by phone recently.

“It’s quite nice,” she said, when Rajarathnam emits these tongue-twisting utterances typically performed by women, “because men have a lower, more booming voice.”

This propulsive Carnatic music of south India, where Rajarathnam lives (in Madras), is the usual accompaniment for Bharata Natyam, the powerful dance style in which dancers bring to life poses of ancient temple sculptures with their entire bodies, including their lips and expressive, darkly outlined eyes.

Rajarathnam, the son of musicians, studied music and dance with his guru, Vazhvoor Ramiah Pillai, who pioneered the unique school of Bharata Natyam, which Harishankar subsequently studied.

She began training with Rajarathnam as a preteen in Madras, moved to Orange County in 1981, and continues to study with her “guru” during his occasional visits here or her trips to India.

“The emphasis in our style is on grace, with a lot of fluid, soft movements,” she said. “He didn’t have a rigid style, however, so whatever each dancer’s strength or weakness was, he’d take into consideration while choreographing. He encouraged us to express ourselves in our own way, even though the basis for what we did was always in traditional Bharata Natyam movement.”

A traditional musical ensemble, also from India, will accompany “Shivanjali,” which is “an offering to Shiva and depicts the different moods and facets of the lord,” Harishankar said. These include shortcomings of this divine being, perceived as possessing every trait known to humans.

“Even though he is considered a god, you find fault with him, and talk about all his characteristics from a negative perspective, yet with love,” she said. “That’s part of the traditional repertory. These offerings are made to the gods and goddesses from every angle, every aspect of feeling and emotion of the lord Shiva is brought out and explored.”

In a phone interview from Irvine, where he stayed last week, Rajarathnam said through an interpreter that Bharata Natyam observers need not embrace Hinduism “to fully understand the art form.” The dancers, however, must hold such beliefs.

The practice of the dance by those outside of the tradition’s bloodline, he said, may have resulted in its slight “dilution.” That, however, “is an inherent consequence of so many new people learning it,” he said, and that balances out any negative effect.

He has some concern, he added, about how well the art form’s integrity will be preserved, what with the eventual disappearance of blood-related gurus such as himself.

“I feel a little hesitant to commit that everything will be all right” in the next 25 or 50 years, Rajarathnam said. “There is a lot of responsibility on the students who are now performing the tradition, but I have some level of confidence it will be done.”

* “Shivanjali,” choreographed by Guru S.K. Rajarathnam, will be performed today at Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. 7 p.m. $10 to $20. (714) 854-4646.