Dr. Mrs Siri Rama.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Siri Rama is a Bharata Natyam and Kuchipudi dancer, teacher and choreographer based in Singapore. She is also the founder-director of the Kanaka Sabha Performing Arts Centre in Mumbai. Siri was awarded a PhD in the Fine Arts by the University of Hong Kong. She has trained under acclaimed gurus Komalavalli, K. Vijayalakshmi, Ramaswami Bhagavathar, T V Sounderarajan, T. Kadirvelu in the Bharata Natyam style and under the late maestro C R Acharyulu, in the Kuchipudi style.
Siri has performed to critical acclaim, presented group performances, and lectured, in many different cities of India and in many parts of the world including the USA, Singapore, Germany, UAE, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Siri has been the recipient of the Singar Mani award at the Sur Singar Samsad, an award for teaching by the Archana Nrityalaya, Mumbai and the Nritya Shivali title by Shivali Cultural Society, Mumbai. She has recently been recognized for her contribution to Dance Education in Singapore by the Ministry of Education.
Siri has also trained a large number of young dancers in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Several of Siri’s students have performed arangetrams and many of them have won competitions at national levels in India, have performed solos in India and abroad, and have become graded artistes on national television. She has choreographed and presented several solo and group dance performances to traditional as well as contemporary themes. She has collaborated with musicians and dancers from many other genres including Hindustani music, Chinese and Malay dance, and computer musicians. Siri is the founder-editor of www.kanakasabha.com, a worldwide website devoted to the appreciation of the Indian classical dance forms.
Siri has been invited to present group and solo performances at several international conferences including the premiere of Buddha Charita (“The Story of the Buddha”) in Hong Kong, a collaborative performance with noted composer Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao in New Delhi, a Jataka tale enactment “Maya Dhwani” in Murdeshwar, Karnataka, and a solo presentation at a Sanskrit conference in Bangkok. She has also been invited to lecture and conduct workshops at leading Universities in the USA, including Duke University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Southern California. She has also made presentations for dance and fine arts departments at George Washington University, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
Siri has taught full-length University courses, “Dance: East and West” and “Introduction to Indian Dance” as an adjunct faculty member at the Singapore Management University, and at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad respectively. She has recently lectured and taught the Asian Dance course at Nanyang Institute of Fine Arts- Singapore, and conducted an Asian Dance workshop at the Institute.
Siri has presented academic papers at conferences on dance, Sanskrit, South East Asian art in India, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. She has also served on conference juries for an International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong, and two international Dance conferences organized by the World Dance Alliance in Singapore. She currently serves as Vice President of the Singapore chapter of the World Dance Alliance.