Dancer Geeta Chandran Honoured With Prestigious Tagore National Fellowship For Cultural Research

Dancer (Padmashri) Geeta Chandran has been bestowed the prestigious TAGORE FELLOWSHIP by the Government of India's Ministry of Culture, 2018-2020.

The other artist-practitioners are Kum. Lakshmi Vishwanathan (Chennai), Shri Jayant Kastuar (Delhi) and Dr. Gayatri Kannan (Chennai). Lakshmi Vishwanathan will detail the history of Thanjavoor as a source, support and centre of dance for a 1000 years. Jayant Kastuar will trace the policies and strategies of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi since its inception; Dr. Gayatri Kannan will work on the reconstruction of angaharas of Bharata.

During her two-year TAGORE FELLOWSHIP Geeta Chandran will explore creating a contemporary pedagogy for group choreography in Indian classical dance. She will be affiliated to the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi as her host institution.

According to Geeta Chandran, there is an urgent need to create guide posts for group choreography that goes beyond the ubiquitous group dance that is ever so popular all over the country. Leading a different dialogue amongst practitioners and experts will be the scope of her project.

A celebrated artist and a star-performer, Geeta Chandran began learning Bharatanatyam from the tender age of 5 years under the tutelage of Smt. Swarna Saraswathy, who hailed from the traditional Thanjavoor dasi parampara. Subsequently, Geeta continued learning diverse aspects of the classical dance from a galaxy of eminent Gurus.

Today she is a renowned artist who has synthesised the knowledge she received from her Gurus to imprint Bharatanatyam with her personal vision of the dance. In her dance presentations Geeta Chandran skilfully weaves abstract notions of Joy, Beauty, Values, Aspirations, Myth and Spirituality.

A polymath, Geeta Chandran effortlessly catalyses multiple vectors of creativity; She is celebrated not only for her deep and composite understanding of the art of Bharatanatyam, but also for her Carnatic music (she is a trained and accomplished vocalist), her work in television, video and film, theatre, choreography, dance education, dance activism and dance-issue journalism.

Geeta Chandran is Founder-President of her dance academy Natya-Vriksha in New Delhi. Natya Vriksha aims to make youth aware of the immense potential of Bharatanatyam to become a live voyage of learning. Through the dance, Geeta Chandran makes them comprehend the complex inter-linkages between the classical dance tradition and its strict grammar with other disciplines: Philosophy, Ritual, Religion, Myths, Ancient texts, Poetry, Literature, Art (Painting and Sculpture), Cultural Studies, Yoga, Handicrafts & Handlooms and Beauty & Aesthetics. Gender dynamics, gender equity and equality are integral to the pedagogy that Geeta has developed in her unique training module.

Geeta Chandran is also Artistic Director of the Natya Vriksha Dance Company, known for the high aesthetic quality of its group presentations that showcase Geeta's metier as a choreographer.

A rare combination of being both a luminary and a visionary, Geeta Chandran is a widely respected role model for the young generation. She guides reputed national cultural institutions and prestigious universities as their Board member, and she also serves on the Advisory Boards of several reputed schools and colleges and on several Boards and Empanelment and other Committees of the Government of India.

An influential spokesperson for classical dance, Geeta Chandran is the author of SO MANY JOURNEYS, an intensely personal collection of her writings narrating her engagement with Bharatanatyam. She also writes an insightful dance column in The New Indian Express/Sunday Standard, and uses her unique space on social media to promote issues relating to Indian performing arts.

Promoting Art in Education is her particular passion and she is committed to catalysing youth audiences everywhere on the values that classical dance brings to life and living.

In her effort to "en-dance the universe," she engages in a strategic range of dance-related activities: performing, teaching, conducting, singing, collaborating, organizing, writing and speaking to new youth audiences.

Geeta was awarded the prestigious national award -- Padma Shri -- by the President of India in 2007. She has also just been conferred the equally prestigious national Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Bharatanatyam for 2016, which she received from the Hon. President of India on 17 January 2018. In July 2017, Geeta received the NIRBHAYA PURUSKAR for mainstreaming gender equality issues in her dance. And in January 2018 she was conferred the International Women Achievers' Award in Bahrain by the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). Geeta is also Brand Ambassador for IGL (Indraprastha Gas Ltd.) a leading public sector energy company. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tV5_PDuaME)

As her contribution to the SWACHCH BHARAT campaign, Geeta has conceptualised a Toilet-Use Education Campaign that seeks to change public attitudes to keeping toilets clean.

In 2014-2015, she marked the completion of four decades of dedication to classical dance, since her arangetram in 1974. 2016 marked the silver jubilee celebrations of Natya Vriksha.