It’s a warm, humid morning. As Sudharani Raghupathy, draped elegantly in a pink sari, walks into the sunlit space between her home and dance school, Bharatalaya, in Chennai’s Mylapore, you notice a slight limp in her step. “It’s not age, I just hurt my toe,” she laughs, settling down to talk about dance. But instead of retreating into nostalgia, she seems curious about what lies ahead. Listening to the Bharatanatyam legend — poised, articulate and full of vitality — you cannot help wondering whether age matters at all.As her conversation moves seamlessly from the present to the past, Sudharani proves you wrong should you think technology is the preserve of Gen Z. At 82, she speaks of it with ease and has strong views too. “I agree AI can do anything. You feed it millions of permutations and combinations. But there is something beyond it, which only the human brain can do,” she says. “When we improvise abhinaya in a padam, can the AI reproduce it? Because we are responding on the spot, on stage, at that very moment. That’s art.”Sudharani punctuates the thought with a brief, eloquent abhinaya — a fleeting smile, an arched brow, a roll of her kohl-rimmed eyes, a tilt of the head and hands that transform into precise mudras. She evokes a lifetime spent perfecting stance, movement and expression under revered vadyars.Chosen recently for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna), she embodies the essence of dance: a space where tradition, spontaneity and emotion converge beyond the reach of machines.“The award is a reaffirmation of my faith in the lineage of the Thanjavur Quartet, who gave the dance form its repertoire and structure. I am fortunate to have belonged to that parampara. I am only a link, like many others. But it’s not just my achievement, it takes a whole band of people to create something enduring,” she says, her words carrying both humility and pride.This collaborative spirit was something she imbibed at home and through her approach to art. She juggled the roles of wife, mother and daughter-in-law with that of an artiste, while holding firmly to the belief that being a dancer alone was not enough to be creative.