Ananda Shankar Jayant | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1961 (age 63–64)[note 1] Chennai ofTamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation(s) | Classical dancer Choreographer |
| Years active | Since 1972 |
| Known for | Bharatanatyam Kuchipudi |
| Spouse | Jayant |
| Parent(s) | G. S. Shankar Subhashini Shankar |
| Awards | Padma Shri Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Kala Ratna Award Nritya Choodamani Kalaimamani Award Natya Illavarasi Nritya Choodamani Nritya Kalasagara Natya Kalasagar Guru Debaprasad Award Indian Express Devi Award Alliance University Nritya Saraswati Vidya Tapasvi Award |
| Website | anandashankarjayant |
Ananda Shankar Jayant is an Indian classical dancer, choreographer, scholar and bureaucrat, known for her proficiency in the classical dance forms ofBharatanatyam andKuchipudi.[2] She is the first woman officer in theIndian Railway Traffic Service on South Central Railway[3] and her 2009TED talk is ranked among the top twelveIncredible TED talks on cancer.[4] She is a recipient ofSangeet Natak Akademi Award,Kalaimamani Award of the Government of Tamil Nadu andKala Ratna Award of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of thePadma Shri, in 2007, for her contributions to arts.[5]
Ananda Shankar, born in aTamil Brahmin family fromTirunelveli district ofTamil Nadu to G. S. Shankar, an officer withIndian Railways and Subhashini, a school teacher and a musician, was brought up inHyderabad where she did her early education atSt. Ann's High School, Secunderabad.[6] She started learning classical dance at the age of 4 under Sharada Keshava Rao and, later, K. N. Pakkiriswamy Pillai, and in 1972 at the age of 11, she joinedKalakshetra ofRukmini Devi Arundale where she trained inBharatanatyam under teachers such as Padma Balagopal, Sharada Hoffman and Krishnaveni Laxman. After six years of study, she secured her diploma and post graduate diploma from the institution in disciplines of Bharatanatyam,Carnatic music, veena, dance theory and philosophy. She returned to Hyderabad at the age of 17 and foundedShankarananda Kalakshetra, a dance school with eight students, which has since grown into a dance academy, associating such artists asPartha Ghose, Mrunalini Chunduri, Sathiraju Venumadhav and Dolan Banerjee among others.[7] In Hyderabad, she also learnedKuchipudi under Pasumarthy Ramalinga Shastry.[8] Concurrently, she pursued her academic studies and after completing her master's degree in Indian History and Culture fromOsmania University, she passed the civil services examination to join theIndian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), thus becoming the first woman officer of the service on South Central Railway[9] While serving IRTS, she continued her studies to secure an MPhil in Art History on aUGC research scholarship and a doctoral degree (PhD) in tourism; her thesis beingPromotion of Tourism in India - Role of Railways.[8]
In June 2008, after returning from aKuchipudi Conference in the US, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which was subsequently treated.[10]
In November 2009, she was invited to share her experiences onTED talk and she delivered a speech, incorporating dance moves in between,[11] which has since been rated as one of the twelveIncredible TED talks on cancer.[9] TheHuffington Post ranked her talk asone of the five greatest TED talks by Indians.[12] She resumed her dancing career after her cancer days which lasted two years. Under the aegis of her dance academy, she composed many dance ensembles likeWhat About Me? (1999) and the subsequentDancing Tales -Panchatantra, based on the ancient Indian fables of the same name and performed on many stages including in Cambodia.[13]Buddham Saranam Gachchami,Jonathan Livingston Seagull,Sri Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum,Buddham Saranam Gachchami,Expressions of Truth (onGandhian ideals),An Easel Called Life,Navarasa - Expressions of Life,Darshanam - An Ode to the Eye,Kavyanjali and Tales from the Bull and the Tiger (2019) are some of the dance productions choreographed by her.[14] She also continued her motivational talks and was one of the speakers of theInspire series at theIndia Conference at Harvard held atHarvard Business School in February 2016 as well as atColumbia College Chicago and atOberlin College, Ohio.[15] She guest-edited the 16th edition ofAttendance-The Dance Annual Magazine of India,[16] and has released a desktop app for practicing dance.[1]
Ananda Shakar is married to Jayant Dwarkanath[17] and she worked as an officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service on the Ministry of Railways from where she retired after 33 years of service .[18]
The Government of Tamil Nadu honored Ananda Shankar withKalamamani Award in 2002[19]
In 2004, she received theNatya Illavarasi title of the Sree Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, New Delhi[20] and two years later, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai awarded her the title ofNritya Choodamani in 2006.[21] The Government of India awarded her the civilian honor of thePadma Shri in 2007,[5] the same year as she received the title,Nritya Kalasagara from Kalasagaram, Secunderabad.[22] and the Government of Andhra Pradesh included her in theUgadi Day honors list for theKala Ratna award in 2008.[23] She received theSangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2009 for her contributions to the dance form ofBharatnatyam.[24]Natya Kalasagar title of Visakha Music Academy reached her in 2010 and she received three awards in 2015,Guru Debaprasad Award of Tridhara,[25]Devi Award for Dynamism and Innovation of theIndian Express[14] andNritya Saraswati title ofAlliance University, Bengaluru.[26]
