Bala Devi Chandrashekar
Bala Devi Chandrashekar is a Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher, and a professor of practice in Asian Performing Arts based in the USA, with an iinterdisciplinary approach involving performing, lecturing, teaching and intense research.
Prof. Chandrashekar has performed (‘Padmavati An Avatar’ being her latest production) and held dance workshops and conferences in Hong Kong, Bali, London, UNESCO-Paris, Tokyo, The Hague, Cyprus, Mylapore, Chennai, Delhi, Thanjapur (Tamil Nadu, India; her birthplace), and numerous other venues — including on Broadway in September 2023. Other productions include “Brihadeesawara — form to formless”, staged at UNESCO headquarters in 2018, and Karna Destiny’s Child. So far, she has taught more than 5,000 students worldwide.
In Angkor Wat, July 2023 (photos courtesy of Ms. Bala Devi Chandrashekar)
An ardent practictioner of the 108 Karanas temple sculptures, she has identified these sculpted standard dance gestures in Prambanan and other temples on bas-reliefs ranging from the 9th to the 14th century, a study carried on for more than two decades in collaboration with renowned scholars in art history, music and associated subjects.
With her guru, Padma Subrahmanyam.