Kalamandalam Saraswathy Biography 
Kalamandalam Saraswathy is a renowned artist from Kerala. She is the founder of Nrityalaya, the institution where Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi and Mohini Attam are taught. She is a renowned teacher who has been in this field for more than 3 decades and hundreds of students have learnt south Indian classical dance forms from her. She is married to Jnapith recipient and renowned Malayalam writer, M. T. Vasudevan Nair who is one of the greatest Malayalam writers all time and has contributed a lot to Malayalam literature and cinema.
She was born in an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family in the village of Kuzhalmannam in Palakkad District. During teens, she moved to Kozhikode. It was her father, who first noticed Saraswathy's keen interest in dance and music. So, soon after schooling she was enrolled in Kerala Kalamandalam, Kerala’s number one institution in training Kerala art forms as well as Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi etc. In 1964, she passed out from the college as a rank holder. Bhaskara Rao trained her in Bharatnatyam and she learnt Mohiniyattam from Kalamandalam Satyabhama. These two teachers have inspired a lot to pursue a career in classical art forms of south India. She also learnt under Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, Chitra Visweswaran, Sudharani Raghupathy, Swamimalai S.K.Rajaratnam Pillai and Kalanidhi Narayanan.
For advanced training, she became a disciple of Kalyanikutty Amma for Mohiniyattam and Vempati Chinna Satyam for Kuchipudi. She founded the “NRITYALAYA” in the year 1972. Under her tutelage many students have learnt these classical art forms of south India. She has also performed live in several stage programs. She received the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy award for Bharatanatyam in 1983 and was awarded The Rotary Award for Professional Excellence in the year 2000.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 23, 2014
