“Successful male bharata natyam dancers are rare to-day. Even more rare, in any country is, for a performer to be successful as a musician as well as a dancer, but Raghunath proves that the combination, works well”.
The French Ministry of Culture has invested with the high honour of the decoration « CHEVALIER
DE L’ORDRE DES ARTS
ET DES LETTRES », Knigt
of the Order of Arts & Letters.

Born in Pondicherry, Paris-based Raghunath, known as a veena player-music composer cum dancer cum choreographer, Raghunath Manet has been practising classical dance (bharata natyam) and classical music (veena) from the tender age.

Raghunath’s objective is to depict the “tandava form” very vigorous, virile and highly energetic essence of male dancing, resembling the energy of Lord Shiva, who performs the dance of creation and destruction of the Universe. “Tandava” is an avenue unexplored by female dancers. So, this artist has gone into this little followed form and wants to relive the old tradition of male bharata-natyam with its true spirit and a modern approach.

“Creation of a male God!” is what The Hindustan Times describes Raghunath as. Suzanne Sigmund of USA writes, “He’s got the grace of a panther, the refinement of the late ballet legend Rudolph Nureyev and dances with the vitality of a young colt”.

He has been trained by fameous male dancers of international acclaim like M.S. Nathan of Pondicherry and the legendary dancer Ram Gopal and has won recognition worldwide. He is also graduated from the acclaimed Kalakshetra in the late 1980’s and worked with Indra Rajan and kanakabujam, very old temples dancers traditions. He has danced for Chandralekha’s “Angika” production for 3 years.

Several prominent journalists, both Indian and foreign, specifically Dr. Sunil Kothari, Leela Venkatraman, Shanta Serbjeet Singh, Dominique Frétard, John Thamson and Suzanne Sigmund, have showered lavish praise on Raghunath. He has worked with world-famous personalities like Prof Alain Daniélou, Carolyn Carlson, Didier Lockwood, Caroline Casadesus, Alain Bouseiller, Archie Shepp, Michel Portal and many more.

Raghunath has been performing all over the world in cultural festivals. His performances have been staged in France, Italy, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hong-Kong, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius, USA, New Caledonia & Antilles Islands, the Reunion Islands, Maurituis and India.

He was also the first Indian choreographer to perform in Opera de Paris in France and at the Grimaldi Theatre in Monaco for the Royal family on the occasion of the first “Nijinsky” dance awards, which was a historic event in the world of dance.

He has had the honour of performing his veena recitals with great vidwans like Umayalpuram Shivaraman, T.K. Murthy, Guruvayur Durai, T.V.Gopalakrishnan, Palghat Raghu, Thiruvarur Bakthavatchalam, Hari Shankar, EM Subramaniam and Subash Chandra. He has also released more than twelve CD’s of his veena selections.

Academic : Doctorate in Cultural Anthropology

Studied dance the tutelage under :
- The late Pondicherry M.S Nathan
- Kalakshetra
- Ram Gopal

Studied vocal music at the tender age under:
- His grand father Gnanamani Pillai

Studied veena under Gurus :
- Chidambaran Kaumati Sankara Iyer
- Rajeshwari Padmanaban
- Ranganayaki Rajagopalan.

Awards (Recipient of Scholarships fellowships & several titles for his outstanding services to Indian Art) :
- CHEVALlER from the French Ministry of Culture
- Natiya Siromani
- Natya Nayakan
- Natya Parani
- Gold Medal & 1st Class Diploma.

Achievement :
- Dr. Balamurali Krishna and Raghunath Manet have performed a karnatic music concert for the prestigious Music festival in Paris (France) during September 2004.
- First Indian dancer performed in the famous "Opera de Paris" in France.
- Performed in the Monaco International festival for the Dance Awards.
- Danced and Choreographed "Les pecheurs de perles" of Bizet prsented by Antoine Bourseiller of the Opera Comique in France.

Raghunath Manet, being a multi talented artist has released more than 20 CDs & 2 DVDs, including
" Karnatik" CD :
Dr Balamuralikrishna & Raghunath Manet.
The great vidwans like Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Guruvayur Durai. Vellore Ramabhatran, T.K. Murthy, Palghat Raghu, Tiruvarur Bakthvatchalam, Hari Shankar, Subbash Chandra, Munish, Madurai T.Srinivasan, E.M Subbramaniam have accompanied him for his CD's.

• Les bayadères,
about Villinour temple dancers (prefaced by Alain Danielou) suite...

• Du temple à la scène,
Bharata natyam, 2007 prefaced by Caroloyn Carlson. suite...

• La musique carnatique, Karnatic music (prefaced by Didier Lockwood).
suite...