For the Dancers Intellect : Theory and history 2 books

Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam is acclaimed as a rare combination of a dancer, research scholar, choreographer, singer, music composer, teacher, author and Indic scholar. She is the daughter of Director K. Subrahmanyam who was an internationally reputed film pioneer, freedom fighter and a parental personality in the cultural field. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, a Master’s Degree in Ethno Musicology and her Ph.D Thesis is on “Karanas in Indian Dance & Sculpture”. She is the first to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Dr. Padma is the President of Nrithyodaya, the dance school founded by her father in 1942; Managing Trustee of the Bharata-Ilango Foundation for Asian Culture (BIFAC), which is a Pan-Asian research centre on performing arts; Managing Trustee of Director K. Subrahmanyam Memorial Trust, a Trustee of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) & a Trustee of Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. She has been connected with a few Universities and is presently the Programme Director (BFA & MFA Distance Education Courses in Bharatanatyam), & Ph.D at SASTRA University. She has received about 130 awards (national & international) which include Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award & the Akademi Ratna (Fellow) from the President of India. She is the only Indian classical dancer to receive the prestigious Fukuoka Asian Cultural Award from Japan for “her contribution to development & harmony in Asia”. She is the first performing artiste to have been conferred the Honorary Fellowship by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai founded in 1804, for her academic achievements. A ten and a half hours documentary has been made by IGNCA, New Delhi, on her reconstruction of the Karanas, which has been uploaded on to the IGNCA Facebook page. She is still a sought after active dancer touring in India and abroad.