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Dr Lakshmi Ramaswamy
Smt. Lakshmi Ramaswamy http://www.lakshmiramaswamy.com/ has carved a niche for herself in the genre of Bharatanatyam as aninspiring performer, giving teacher, creative choreographer and an ardent researcher. A review quotes, ‘There has been many blooms in Bharatanatyam, but that sheds lasting fragrance is, Lakshmi’

Learner
A senior disciple of Smt Chitra Visweswaran, Lakshmi http://www.lakshmiramaswamy.com/ has also trained Karanas under Dr Padma Subrahmanyam, Abhinaya from Smt Kalanidhi Narayan and Tamil texts from Dr S Raghuraman. She holds Doctorate from Madras University, apart from her Masters’ degree in Commerce (M Com) and Masters in Bharatanatyam (M A).To her, ‘learning’ is a life long journey and she continues to learn and research.

Performer
Lakshmi is a ‘TOP’ grade artist of Doordarshan, empanelled artist of ICCR (India Centre for Cultural Relations) and the SZCC (South Zone Cultural Centre). She has to her credit numerous solos and group performances in National and International festivals and in prestigious sabha-s.She also has many Television appearances to her credit. As a performer she has travelled widely, that includes countries: U S A, UK, Canada, France, Arab countries, Australia and Sri Lanka. === Awards and titles === Twice winning gold medal in Youth festivals during her college days; acknowledgement from Tamilnadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram in their scheme for ‘upcoming artists in different cultural fields’; ‘Balasaraswathy endowment Award’& ‘Vedantam Satyanarayana Award’ from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha; ‘Yuva Kala Bharati’ from Bharat Kalachar; ‘Nritya Vidhya Ratna’ from Sarasaalaya; ‘Natya kala Vipanci’ from Vipanchi are some of the credits that came her way. She has also received ‘Best Guru’ award (with title, ‘Kalāchārya Sirōmaņi’) by VDS Arts Academy and Birudhu, ‘Vani Kala Nipuna’ from Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, ‘Award of Excellence’ from Siva foundationand ‘Saadhanai Penmani’ from Ajantha Fine Arts for her outstanding contribution to the field of Bharatanatyam. Lakshmi, who wasawarded the ‘Acharya Kala Vipanchee’ in 2015, is received the ‘Acharya Kala Bharati’ in Dec2016. In December 2017 she received the ‘Devdasi National Award’ and ‘Natya Kala Mani’(Trinity Arts Festival) award.

Scholarship and fellowships
Lakshmi has received fellowship from the Music Academy, Chennai for her Ph.D. work. Earlier she received the senior scholarship offered by the Department of Culture, Government of India. She is also a recipient of Fulbright fellowship (given to scholars of different countries by the Government of U S), for Arts and Culture management studies. She was attached with Golden Gate University, San Francisco for this fellowship, in the year 2000. She has received the prestigious Senior Fellowship of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Teacher
She has served in the capacity of senior teacher in her guru’s institution, ‘Chidambaram Academy of performing Arts’ for more than a decade. She then started teaching at, ‘Sri Mudhraalaya’ where she imparts training to interested youngsters. Started in a small way with three students, today this institution has many students who are not only graded artists of Doordarshan, but are also teachers in their own right and have conducted arangetram-s of their students. Lakshmi also serves as Guest Faculty for M A Bharatanatyam Course in the Music Department, University of Madras. Her students have won many competitions, National scholarship (junior and senior) and acknowledgement of Tamilnadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram. Lakshmi has conducted workshops in Chennai, Kolkata and also in US and Canada.

Sri Mudhraalaya
With an objective to take forward classical arts to the next generation, Lakshmi started teaching in a small way with three students. Today, Sri Mudhraalaya is a registered society with satellite institutions headed by her students, in different parts of Chennai. Sri Mudhraalaya offers group and individual classes that aims at: holistic training in practical dancing, theory and exercises, nattuvangam, stage craft, stage management, stage presentation, production assistance, lighting, choreography and teachers training. Scholarship to outstanding students, ‘Suvidhyaarthi’ has also been instituted.

Choreographer
Apart from the traditional units (like alarippus, jatiswarams, shabdams, varnams, kirtanams, padams, javali-s and kavutuvams), her choreographic works http://www.lakshmiramaswamy.com/thematic-solo/ that have crossed 125, also include unusual works like, pudu-kavidai, pallu and madakku. She has special interest in Classical Tamil works, and has brought muchsuch Sangam age poems as dance units. Other than individual dance units as above, she has also done duet choreography works, group productions, thematic arangetrams, thematic solos and solo dance theatre. Her neo-classical work, ‘Sculptor’s Dream’, was judged the best in IDA festival, 2002 and ‘Purananuru’ won the best production certificate from Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha in 2012. Lakshmi has received production grant four times, from the state government and has brought rare Tamil works to the dance ‘stage’ and thrice from the Central Government.

Papers and Lecture-demonstrations
Lakshmi has presented papers in National and International seminars and conferences that include: Paper presentation for Semmozhi Maanadu (International Conference for Classical Tamil); ‘Dialogue through dance’ for Urbaniana University, Rome and ‘Methodology for institutional teaching in dance’, Madras University. She has also done Lecture-Demonstrations in Sabha-s of Chennai and in Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

Print Media
She has been contributing articles regularly in art magazines and reviews of performances in newspapers http://www.lakshmiramaswamy.com/press/. She has translated book, ‘History of Tamil’s Dance’, by Dr S Raghuraman and has co-authored book, ‘Natana Kalaichol Kalanjiam’.Her has published her book, ‘Shall we know: Natya’. This book has been a ready reckoner for enthusiastic dance students and the first book to refer and compare both Sanskrit and Tamil traditions in Natya.

Academic associations
Other than her association with the Madras University, Lakshmi has written lessons for MA dance course in Annamalai University, Bachelors lessons for Alagappa University&course material for Prayathnam. She is consultant for Alagappa University and examiner for a couple of institutions and regional selection committees.