Nirupama Vaidyanathan

🪔 About

Nirupama Vaidyanathan is a distinguished Indian classical dancer, teacher, and choreographer specializing in Bharatanatyam. She has dedicated over thirty years to the study and practice of this South Indian classical dance form. Vaidyanathan holds a Master's degree in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Her extensive training in India was under the tutelage of acknowledged master teachers, Swamimalai Rajarathnam and Kalanidhi Narayanan. Nirupama Vaidyanathan made her solo dance debut at the age of twelve and has since performed over 300 solo recitals across India, the United States, and Afghanistan. She is the visionary behind the Sankalpa School of Dance in Fremont, California, where she serves as the founding Artistic Director, training aspiring dancers in Bharatanatyam. She also established the Sankalpa Dance Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to propagating and promoting Bharatanatyam through performances, workshops, and lecture demonstrations. Through the Foundation, Vaidyanathan has choreographed and presented several critically acclaimed, full-length thematic dance productions. Beyond her contributions to dance, she is also recognized as a writer, storyteller, and educator, and previously held the position of editor for India Currents magazine.