Joyce Paul Poursabahian Biography 
Joyce Paul Poursabahian is an accomplished Indian classical dancer and exercise physiologist born in New Delhi. She is an exponent of Bharatnatyam and has also learnt Mohiniyattam. She had her initial dance training under the acclaimed Bharatnatyam guru, Leela Samson. She founded her own dance company Arpan in 2003 in in Redmond, WA where she serves as its artistic director.
Joyce Paul Poursabahian trained bharatnatyam under Leela Samson, and other dance forms from Prof. J.Janardhanan and Prof C. V. Chandrashekaran at Kalakshetra. She is a graduate of Zoology with specialization in Reproductive Biology and specialized on evolution of man in time and space for her Master’s degree. She completed her Ph. D in Exercise Physiology from the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi and during this time, she published papers on 'Dance Related Injuries among Bharatnatyam' in addition to her other Zoology papers. Later she worked as Instructional Designer, Content Publisher, User Researcher and Business Intelligence Analyst for NIIT India Ltd and Microsoft Corporation for about 15 years before moving to the world of arts and dance.
By early 1990’s, she started private Bharatnatyam tuition classes with blessings of her guru, Leela Samson. She conducted seminars among clients discussing communication using dance as a body language. For a brief time, she taught Bharatanatyam classes at Kalashram Trust, New Delhi, founded by Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj. In 2001, to join Microsoft she reached Redmond, WA and two years later she founded Arpan, her own dance company. She has spent more than 15 years in this field and popularized this art form in several foreign countries. Kalaprayanam (2005), LayaSamvaad (2009) and Kalaprayanam (2007) are among her finest choreographed works.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 23, 2014
