The story of Thanvi Ragesh, who currently stands as the best individual performer at the recently concluded Mahatma Gandhi University arts festival in Pathanamthitta, simply does not conform to the binary of cisgender status quo.
A first year BA Bharatanatyam student at the RLV College of Dance and Music, she is the first transwoman artist to achieved this feat. Starting out as just one among the 6,000-odd participants across the 280 colleges under the varsity, the 26-year-old exerted a marked influence on the festival scene, winning the Pratibha Tilak award for the best transgender artist.
Ms. Ragesh believes that her success will go a long way in improving trans-visibility of performing arts in Kerala. “My goal is to dance professionally and make a living out of it. I am striving hard to get to where I want to be,” she says.
Assigned male gender at birth, she started learning classical dance from an young age and went on to perform at the school youth festival at the State-level on three occasions till 2013. She also participated in the Kerala Natanam competition under the male category at the MGU arts festival in 2014 and came out of her initial identity later next year after a brief period of struggle.
“This was, however, the first time that I attended any competition as a transgender artist. I was so concerned over the audience response towards a transgender artist but they have all proved me wrong. I was greeted with a loud round of applause while stepping onto the stage for the Bharatanatyam competition,” says Ms. Ragesh, daughter of Suresh and Shyla, residing at Thripunithura.
Coming first with ‘A’ grade in Bharatanatyam, she could keep her energy throughout the festival and emerged winner of the classical music competition (transgender category), besides finishing second in light music.
Elated over her debut as a transgender artist, she now hopes that her achievements will serve as a guiding light to all gender non-conforming artists who languish in the ambivalent edges of society.
“The extension of this separate category of competition for transgenders, which is currently limited to only a handful of events, is bound to draw more transgender artists to the university festival scene,” she says
