The temple's door is closed for him,
Forbidden is the image of Lord Shiva.
His single freedom are the secret words
which fly from his heart to God;
Immediate then are the meeting and the union
between the disciple and the beloved.

Music by
Late V.S. Muthuswamy Pillaï (India), T.V. Gopalakrishna (India), The Ghyuto Monks (Tibet), Peter Gabriel (USA).

Lyrics by
Gopalakrishna Bharati, extracted from Nandanar Charitram

Odile Delcambre - Peuples du Monde, Paris
"he discovers, amazed, that his god lives within, that he is that god himself! Dominique dances his god, dances exclusion. His whole body suffers, seeks, crawls and exults. His whole body expresses his humility, his illumination. Body and soul in complete harmony. But there is no more body, no more soul. There is an offered being, living at the deepest inside and the audience is bowled over."

Radhika Srinivasan - Straight Times, Singapore
"His treatment of the literary motif as he inter-laced the passages with robust cross-rythms was astonishing in its sheer immensity and variety…In the purely interpretative dance items, he revealed a deep sense of spirituality when he captured the emotions of a pining devotee and tugged at the audience's heartstrings…An evening marked with dignity, poise and grace…He transformed himself into an image of pure joy."

Arshiya Sethi - The Hindu, India
"...for the true creative urge, cultural barriers cannot be an obstacle. The distilled purity of the performance left the audience spellbound…Phenomenal interpretative and rhythmic mastery…Sheer sadhana has given his movements a natural ease. The joy of movement is never absent and along with this is quality of abhinaya that can come only from a totally internalised art experience… The intensity of his abhinaya could hardly have been bettered by Tamil born to the language…Crisp succinct dance movements giving the message with conviction and brevity"

Shanta Serbjeet Singh - Hindustan Times, India
"Something else emerged with clarity after experiencing his art: the fact that art is truly without frontiers and that anyone who dares can dive in and come up with pearls. More, when comes with a rich cross-cultural background, the advantages can far outweight the handicaps. He has added the satvika abhinaya and the sadhana that brought him the instant recognition of the cognoscenti at Triveni."

A soul-searching trip to India in 1983 sparked Dominique’s interest in the people and culture of India. On his return to France in 1985, he started learning Bharata Natyam from Malavika (a Paris based Bharata Natyam dancer). In 1987, with a scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations), he pursued his advanced training under Guru V.S. Muthuswamy Pillai in Chennai. Simultaneously, he received training in ‘abhinaya’ from Kalanidhi Narayanan and Anuradha Jagannathan, in Carnatic vocal music from Sulochana Pattabiraman and in nattuvangam from Kamala Rani of Kalakshetra. In 1989, Dominique started working under Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam on the Natya Shastra. In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious ‘Villa Medicis Hors Les Murs’ and the ‘Romain Rolland’ fellowships by the French Government to continue his research on Natya Shastra.

Following his Arangetram in 1990, Dominique continued to perform solo throughout India, Malaysia, Singapore, Western Europe, West Indies and now in the US. He played Narada in ‘Krishnam Vande Jagathgurum’ choreographed by Sudharani Raghupathy and Shiva in ‘Natya Shastra Avataranam’ by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam.

His first solo production ‘Nandanar’ toured India and Europe and received critical acclaim and has become his masterpiece. He continued his creative efforts with ‘Seeds of Light’ (1991) with Shakuntala and ‘Skin Deep’ (1995-96) in collaboration with Kalpana, both French Bharata Natyam dancers. ‘Dance with the Gods!’ (1997) and ‘Ardhanareeswara’ (2002) with Malavika were productions that have also toured Europe and India. Dominique along with a Tango, contemporary, hip-hop and West Indian slave dancer made up ‘The Migrators’ who explored a poem by Damas, a West Indian poet in their own dance vocabulary. The production titled ‘Black Label’ toured France, West Indies and S. America from 1999-2002. ‘Shiva Karanas’ premiered in 2001.