Initiated young into the art form, dance has been, not a hobby or a pastime, or even a career, but just the reason to be; a way to touch eternity. Trained by brilliant gurus, in the true guru-sishya parampara, at Kalakshetra I learnt dance at the feet of Rukmini Devi Arundale who said "Culture is neither performance nor entertainment but life and art is an expression of life".

I learnt Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music, Veena, Choreography, Nattuvangam, Philosophy et al, in my six years at Kalakshetra, and later also learnt Kuchipudi from Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry. I perform as a soloist in two very renowned classical dance styles, and am often told that I dance with an inner joy. I believe, that, dance cannot be mere geometry of the body or number crunching of rhythms. It has to touch an inner core, in me the dancer and you the viewer. Grammar is only a stepping stone to poetry and spirit.

My language called dance, thus paints before you a canvas of life and beyond… of our fallible self groping in the darkness for that light … of eternity… My group choreographies have been acclaimed as lyrical, sublime, graphic beauty in motion, distinctive choreography, thought provoking, daring etc.

Through my solo and group works, and dance theatre productions, I have explored areas both traditional and contemporary. If Sri Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Buddham Saranam Gachchami and Thyagaraja Ramayanam looked at myth and chronicle; What about me, focused on gender issues, while Jonathan Livingston Seagull, touched a philosophical tenet, as did my solo work Gitopadesa. Navarasa - Expressions of Life was pure dance and abstraction, Darshanam - An ode to the eye, explored poetic and philosophical metaphors of the physical eye, while my latest work Dancing Tales…Panchatantra brought in everyday humour and morals into dance.

Teaching dance to young aspirants at my dance institution Shankarananda Kalakshetra, rejuvenates me, I pass on a tradition to a younger generation and am very gratified to see youngsters make stunning debuts, and strike out as performers and teachers. I invite an uninitiated audience into the contemporariness of a traditional art form by writing, teaching and lecturing on dance.

To me, to dance is to be, to dance is to be happy, for I dance with joy (Ananda) to reach that permanent state of bliss (Ananda) I dance in frenzied action to seek that stillness of the soul.