Stella Subbiah

🪔 About

Stella Subbiah is a UK-based Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, and creative practitioner with a career spanning over three decades. She grew up in an artistic environment, with her father, Hari Uppal, being a respected exponent of Kathakali and Manipuri and the founder of Bharatiya Nritya Kala Mandir in Patna. An alumna of Kalakshetra, Chennai, Stella Subbiah trained and worked for over a decade with the legendary Rukmini Devi Arundale. Her academic engagements include teaching Indian theatre at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands for a year and a half, followed by over two years in Nigeria. Stella Subbiah established the All Saints Art Centre in London to train young dancers and, in 1994, founded the Sankalpam Dance Company in the UK. Sankalpam is known for presenting Bharatanatyam with a strong foundation in tradition while exploring new choreographic possibilities. Her choreographic work, which includes dance films like "Krishna: Knave of Hearts" and "Indar Sabha," focuses on how tradition can be a contemporary creative force and speak to the present moment. She approaches Bharatanatyam as an interdisciplinary and somatic practice, emphasizing the transformation of the body through imagination.