Alarmel Valli

Valli is a leading Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer, acclaimed internationally for her ability to turn a traditional grammar into a subtle, deeply internalized, personal dance poetry. Trained by great masters, Pandanallur Sri Chokkalingam Pillai and his son Sri Subbaraya Pillai, she has enriched her dance vocabulary and extended the frontiers of her dance tradition to evolve her own distinctive style, which has been described as “uniquely individualistic…an effortless synchronisation of apparent contradictions – linearity and lyricism, symmetry and sinuosity, precision and poetry”.

Amongst numerous awards received by Alarmel Valli, are two of India’s highest civilian honours –the Padmasri and the Padma Bhushan, conferred by the President of India and the Chevalier of Arts and Letters award from the French Government. She has received the ‘Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris’, the award of The Sangeet Natak Akademy – the apex body for Indian Music, Dance and Drama, the State award of Kalaimamani from the Tamilnadu Government, and the title of Nritya Choodamani from the Krishna Gana Sabha in Madras.