[citation needed] According to Sankara Menon (1907–2007), who was her associate from Kalakshetra's beginnings,[14] Rukmini Devi raised Bharatanatyam to a puritan art form, divorced from its recently controversial past by "removing objectionable elements" (mostly, the Sringara, certain emotional elements evocative of the erotic, such as hip, neck, lip and chest movements) from the Pandanallur style, which was publicly criticized by Indian dancer Tanjore Balasaraswati (1918–1984) and other representatives of Tamil Nadu's traditional Isai Velalar culture.

Lawyer and classical artist E. Krishna Iyer (1897–1968) said about Rukmini Devi, "There is no need to say that before she entered the field, the art was dead and gone or that it saw a renaissance only when she started to dance or that she created anything new that was not there before".

In the following months, over a hundred students of Kalakshetra Foundation's Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts accused senior faculty member, Hari Padman, of sexual harassment.

Padman was exonerated following an internal investigation, and Kalakshetra Foundation issued a gag order preventing students and staff from discussing the allegations.

[21] Amidst the sexual harassment allegations, students also raised complaints about mismanagement by the foundation director Revathi Ramachandran, referring to the coverup of a food poisoning outbreak in November 2021.

[22] Notable alumni include Radha Burnier, Amala Akkineni, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Sanjukta Panigrahi, C.V. Chandrasekhar, Dhananjayans, Adyar K. Lakshman, Jayashree Narayanan, Kalakshetra Vilasini, Leela Samson,[24] Satyavati Motiram Sirsat, Jaya Thyagarajan, Devoleena Bhattacharjee, and Ananda Shankar Jayant.