Chitra Visweswaran Biography 
Chitra Visweswaran is a noted Bharatnatyam dancer. She now runs a dance school, the Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts, in Chennai since 2001. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992 for her overall contributions to Indian dance forms. She is the recipient of the Music Academy’s Natya Kala Acharya Award for Dance for the year 2013 and was conferred to her on January 3, 2014. She is also a recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in the year 1987. Nritya Vilas - Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai, 1988; Manav Sewa Puraskar - Institute of economic studies, 1992 (Lok Shree Award, New Delhi) and Natanamani - Kanchi Paramacharya in 1999 are other major honours received by her.
Chitra’s association with dance began at a very early age of just 3 years old. It was her mother Rukmini Padmanabhan who initiated her to dance at a younger age. She has been an excellent Bharatnatyam dancer though she didn’t take it as profession. Her father N. Padmanabhan was an engineer in the Indian Railways. Later Chitra undertook training in Western Classical Ballet in London where her father was Railway Adviser at the Indian High Commission. When she returned to India, she learnt Manipuri and Kathak from Kolkata. She has been a disciple of T.A Rajalakshmi, at the age of 10 under whom she trained for a decade or so. Her arangettam happened when she was 10 years old.
Chitra started choreography at the age of eleven. At thirteen, she had choreographed the life of Saint Thyagaraja in the format of a Varnam, the trademark of Bharatnatyam. While at Kolkata she completed graduation. In 1970, she received the National Scholarship for advanced study in Bharatanatyam from the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. She spent four years in the study of Bharatnatyam and became an exponent of this dance form. She started teaching at Kolkata by the age of 16 and established “Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts” (CAPA) in Chennai in 1975.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 23, 2014
