Anupama Rajesh (nee Anupama Sury) has been learning Bharatanatyam since the age of five under the able tutelage of Guru Rajee. She has also trained for Carnatic Music and Nattuvangam under the same Guru. After her Arangetram in 1988, Anupama Rajesh has been performing all over the country and also some parts of the world.
Her participation in the documentary called 'Atom for Peace', shown during the Festival of India in USSR at the age of 12, was a significant achievement. The Best Dancer of the Year award followed in 1988 and she received the golden opportunity to perform at Munich, Germany as part of a cultural delegation to that country.
Anupama’s numerous dance performances for the Shivali Cultural Organization in Delhi, Madras and Bombay, for the National Centre for the Performing Arts and Tata Theatre in Bombay, for the Narada Gana Sabha in Madras between 1988 and 1999 have been critically acclaimed for grace, rhythm and abhinaya by dance critics in all the leading dailies of India. Subbudu, Prakriti Kashyap, Kinneri and Jayshankar are just some of the many who have appreciated her talent in print.
Anupama has had the opportunity to perform in Italy while she studied there for a short period of time and also in New York for the Gemological Institute of India immediately after she arrived in the US last year. After a brief performance last year at the Skandashashti celebrations at the Aurora Balaji temple in Chicago, she along with Parvathi Narayan featured in the temple’s yearly programmes in a two-hour stellar performance. She also travelled to Anchorage, Alaska, in 2001, when she was invited by the Cultural Association of India to perform in front of a highly appreciative American Audience.
After having assisted her Guru in teaching and conducting dance recitals in Bombay for several years, Anupama has now assumed the responsible task of teaching this divine art form of Bharatanatyam in Naperville, IL. Anupama will conduct the first Arangetram of her career with her student Pravallika ascending the stage in August of 2002. Anupama is also a Masters in French and a diploma holder in Italian and is a part-time translator and interpreter of both languages.
Anupama Rajesh
papli98@hotmail.com
