KUALA LUMPUR, 29 September 2026 – Suganthi Nadesan was nine years old when she began learning Bharatanatyam. Thirty-five years after stepping away from it, the mother of four returned to complete one of the most important milestones in her dance journey.

Hema Latha Thangavelu began at eight. Her training ended following the death of her mother when she was 25. She later married, had three children and, as the years passed, believed an Arangetram was something she would never complete.

On 19 September 2026, Suganthi, 51, and Hema, 46, completed Arathanai, their joint Bharatanatyam Arangetram at Shantanand Auditorium, Temple of Fine Arts in Brickfields.

The two women had never met before they were paired for the Arangetram. Their stories began decades apart, but both returned to Bharatanatyam in 2021 under sisters and Nartaki Fine Arts founders Suhaanya and Mathura Madivanan.

Suganthi came back after 35 years

Suganthi began training under Srimathi Vickneswari Porgunasundram in Rantau, Negeri Sembilan in 1984 and completed her Salangai Poojai in 1987.

Marriage, four children and caregiving responsibilities followed. For the next 35 years, she did not train in Bharatanatyam.

A conversation about unfulfilled dreams years later made her reconsider.

“I often found myself asking, ‘Why shouldn’t I do it?’”

She joined Nartaki in October 2021.

Returning after 35 years meant rebuilding her stamina and preparing her body for regular training again. She kept up with health check-ups and spent the next several years working towards her Arangetram.

It also became a family effort. Suganthi does not drive, so her four children, now aged between 20 and 26, helped by driving their mother to classes.

“The happiness I feel today when I dance is exactly the same as the joy I experienced as a nine-year-old child,” she says.

Hema kept making the journey from Ipoh

Hema’s Bharatanatyam journey began under Guru Selvomoney Selvaraj in Sitiawan, Perak.

When her mother died, her training came to an abrupt stop. Hema was 25 and believed the opportunity to complete her Arangetram had passed.

She returned to Bharatanatyam in 2021 as a mother of three living in Ipoh.

Nartaki Fine Arts is based in Puchong. When physical classes were held, Hema travelled between Ipoh and Puchong for training while raising her children and managing knee arthritis.

Her children, now aged between 11 and 17, have watched her train over the past several years. Her daughter is also learning Bharatanatyam and watches her mother rehearse at home. Hema hopes they will one day perform together.

She describes Bharatanatyam as “not merely a hobby” but an essential part of who she is.

Two separate stories became one Arangetram

Suganthi and Hema did not know each other before Arathanai.

Both had returned to Bharatanatyam after long gaps and both were working towards a milestone they had once thought they might never reach.

They spent close to five years preparing together.

“Sharing this experience together has been a wonderful source of encouragement and motivation throughout our preparations,” Suganthi says.

Their families played an important part in making those years of training possible, from their husbands supporting their decision to return to dance to their children adjusting around classes, rehearsals and travel.

On 19 September, those same families watched them complete their Arangetram.

The women who made room for their return

Their gurus Suhaanya and Mathura know what it feels like to question whether there is a place for you in classical dance.

The sisters previously told Herstory that they had been excluded from certain programmes because they were plus-sized dancers.

That experience influenced the kind of school they wanted to create. When they founded Nartaki Fine Arts in 2020, they wanted Bharatanatyam to be accessible to students regardless of age, size, gender or background.

Suganthi and Hema joined the school a year later.

Their age did not change the expectations placed on them as dancers. Both spent close to five years training for their Arangetram.

What their children will remember

There is no verified record establishing Suganthi and Hema as Malaysia’s oldest women to complete an Arangetram. Their achievement does not need that claim.

Suganthi’s children watched their 51-year-old mother complete something she had started at nine, long before any of them were born.

Hema’s children watched their mother return to the art she left after losing her own mother. Her daughter, now learning Bharatanatyam herself, did not only hear about the dancer her mother used to be. She watched her train and complete her Arangetram.

Suganthi and Hema started Bharatanatyam as girls. Two weeks ago, they completed their Arangetram as mothers, wives and women with decades between their first dance classes and the performance at Shantanand Auditorium.

For Suganthi, that meant returning after 35 years. For Hema, it meant returning after close to two decades and training despite knee arthritis.

Together, they finished what they had started as young girls with big dreams, with Suhaanya and Mathura guiding them as teachers, and Nartaki Fine Arts giving them the space to come back and complete what they once thought they had left behind.

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