About the Guru
 | Smt. Padma Rao was trained to perfection in the field of bharatanatya by the well-known bharatanatya Guru Rajyotsava award winner Dr. Tulasi Ramachandra, director of Nrityalaya, Mysore. Her talent was well recognized by many Sabhas and was awarded scholarships from Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy. She has a Masters and PGD in computer science from the University of Mysore. Having worked as a professor and a software consultant, she has an immense pleasure in dedicating herself to the field of bharatanatya. Her creative abilities have made her an ardent art lover and helped her to nurture her love for dance, music, drawing, painting, and sculpting. She is the artistic director of Nrityanjali Academy of Dance (NAD), an institution par excellence in the Triangle area. She follows a remarkably rich and intense bharatanatya style that combines dynamism and grace, austerity and passion, energy and repose. |
She has directed and choreographed many dance items with mythological, historical, social, and contemporary themes. Her extraordinary knowledge of Indian history and traditions, the backbone of bharatanatya, has inspired her to choreograph fresh and diverse themes that are innovative, yet within the tradition. Herself and her students have performed and rendered lecture demonstrations in India and the U.S. in a wide variety of shows organized by NIEHS-EPA, the Montessori School, VIF (Visiting International Faculty) convention, the NCAAHPERD annual convention at Winston Salem, Basant Bahar, Exploris, and Sampige Kannada Association. Her presentations, along with her students’, have evoked responses from audiences as being stimulating, meaningful and aesthetic.
The Guru, supported by the talented musicians, has sincerely endeavored to portray Anita’s talent in bharatanatya to her level best. Anita’s performance will be a treat to the rasikas, depicting items with various moods (rasas), ragas, talas, deities, languages, and composers.
