 Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, the
legendary Bharatnatyam dancer is a rare
combination of a dancer, research
scholar, choreographer, music composer & musician, teacher, author and
indologist. She is now the director of 'Nrithyodaya'- the dance school founded
in 1942 by her father, in Chennai.
Padma grew up in an environment
where both her parents were artistically inclined. Her father K. Subrahmanyam
was an internationally reputed film director, freedom fighter and a parental
personality in the cultural field while her mother Meenakshi was a dancer,
choreographer, instrumentalist and a lyricist in Sanskrit and Tamil.
Padma Subrahmanyam started
learning dance under Kausalya, a young teacher at Nrityodaya. Later, she came under the wings of guru Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai. Shehad her 'arangetram' (first performance) in 1956, since then she has given innumerable performances in concerts conducted by her guru, her school in India and toured abroad extensively during the past three decades. Meanwhile she continued her formal
college education. She has had a number of gurus especially during her research-
Guru Dandayuthapani Pillai and the various Devadasis from whom she learned '
adavus', Gowri Ammal from whom she learnt 'abhinaya' being some of them. Padma
has also trained in music under B.V. Lakshman and Salil Chaudhry.
Padma has a Bachelor’s degree
in Music, Master’s in Ethno Musicology and Ph.D in dance from Annamalai
University. As a research scholar she did her thesis on 'Karanas in Indian dance
and sculpture' and highlighted the fact that the 108 Karanas (which is the basic
units of dance) are actually movements and not just static poses. She has also
designed the sculptures of the 108 Karanas of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvati in
black granite for the Nataraja temple at Satara in Maharashtra. She has given
several solo and group presentations such as ' Meenakshi Kalyanam', '
Viralimalai Kuravanji', 'Silappadikaram', ' Vande Mataram' etc. and composed
music for most of her compositions and sung for a couple of albums. She was the
first dancer to introduce 'Pushpanjali' as a dance piece and to use a 'meera
bhajan' to be scored to suit the grammar of 'Pada Varnam' and has revived the
mono acting technique in her dance dramas. She has also composed the first
Bengali Varnam, set to the lyrics by Salil Chaudhry. She has numerous articles,
research papers and travelogues to her credit like 'Bharata’s Art – then and
now', 'Bharatakkalai Kotpadu' (in Tamil), 'Natya Sastra and National Unity' and
'Kanchi Mahaswami’s Vision of Asian Culture'. She has written ‘Legacy of a
Legend’ which is a collection of articles by her.
Padma Subramanyam has many awards
and honours to her credit including 'Padma Bhushan', 'Padmashri', 'Sangeet Natak
Akademi Award', 'Kalaimamani Award' from Govt. of Tamilnadu, 'Kalidas Samman'
from Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, 'Nada Brahmam' from Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai,
'Bharata Sastra Rakshamani' and so on. She has also received the prestigious
'Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize' from Japan for her contribution to development
and harmony in Asia. She has served as a non-official member of the
Indo-Sub-commission for education and culture.
This multi faceted and multi
talented artist enchants viewers with her perfect gestures, timing, expressions
and original ideas. Famous in India as well as abroad, several films and
documentaries have been made in her honour by countries like Japan, Australia
and Russia. She imparts her immense knowledge to others by teaching dance,
conducting workshops, giving lectures, doing research and writing articles.
Contact address
Nrithyodaya
No.6, IV Main Road,
Gandhi Nagar,
Chennai - 600 020, India.
Phone 044 - 2491
0575 / 0618
Email : Contact Now
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