Google celebrates classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai's birth centenary

Google on Friday celebrated renowned Indian classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai on her 100th birth anniversary.

In the doodle, Sarabhai is seen with her signature parasol, standing proudly in the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts auditorium, with three of her students dancing in the background.

A Padma awardee and an exponent of the Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dance from, Sarabhai, was born on this day in 1918, Her father was Madras High Court lawyer S. Swaminathan and mother social worker A.V. Ammakutty.

She spent most of her early years in Switzerland, where she was introduced to the Dalcroze Eurhythmics. It is an unique approach to music learning developed by Swiss composer and educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.

It awakened, developed and refined innate musicality within her through rhythmic movement, ear-training and improvisation.

Sarabhai started training at a fairly young age, studying both the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam and dance-drama Kathakali. She quickly developed her own technique, spirit and strength.

She was the youngest of three children -- her older sister, Lakshmi Sehgal, was a part of the Indian National Army and her older brother Govind Swaminathan, a former attorney general of the state of Madras.

In 1942, she married renowned physicist Vikram Sarabhai, who became the Father of the Indian Space Programme. Their children, Kartikeya and Mallika, both took to their iconic mother and pursued dance and theatre.