Padma Subrahmanyam

Padma Subrahmanyam (born 4 February 1943, in Madras), is an Indian classical Bharatanatyam dancer. She is also a research scholar, choreographer, teacher, Indologist and author. She is famous in India as well as abroad; several films and documentaries have been made in her honor by countries such as Japan, Australia and Russia. She is well known as the developer and founder of the dance form Bharata Nrithyam.

Life and career Padma Subrahmanyam was born to Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam, the Indian film director and Meenakshi Subrahmanyam on 4 February 1943 in Madras (now Chennai). Her father was a famous Indian filmmaker and her mother, Meenakshi was a music composer and a lyricist in Tamil and Sanskrit. She was trained by Vazhuvoor B. Ramaiyah Pillai. She had her Arangetram in 1956.

She has taught children in Monfort Rukmani Devi, Maharaja Aagarsen and various other schools in the years 2009 to 2011. Padma holds a bachelor's degree in music, a master's degree in Ethnomusicology, as well as a PhD in Dance under the guidance of Kuthur Ramakrishnan Srinivasan, the noted archaeologist and a Padma Bhushan recipient. Her PhD was based on the reconstruction of the 108 karanas, which are dance movements described in the Natya Shastra. She has authored numerous articles, research papers and books and has served as a non-official member of the Indo-Sub-commission for education and culture. She has designed the 108 sculptures of Lord Nataraja and goddess Parvathi in black granite for the Nataraja temple at Satara, an undertaking she took at the bidding of the Kanchi Paramacharya. She has given lectures at various universities in southeast Asia, on the subject of cultural links between India and other countries. Padma Shri (1981) Kalaimamani Award from the government of Tamil Nadu Kalidas Samman from the federal government of Madhya Pradesh, Nishagandhi Puraskaram by the Government of Kerala in 2015, Nada Brahmam from Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai, Bharata Sastra Rakshamani from the Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram . Nehru Award (1983) from the Soviet Union Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize from Japan, for "her contribution to development and harmony in Asia"