S. Swaminathan

Born on 21 March 1927 in a family of illustrious Bharatanatyam gurus at Pandanallur village in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, Shri S. Swaminathan received his training in the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam under his grandfather S. Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. He gained wide repute as a nattuvanar and teacher of Bharatanatyam in the early 1960s.
Shri Swaminathan travelled extensively within the country to impart training to students at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Delhi, and also conducted their recitals at prestigious dance festivals within and outside the country. He inherited a vast corpus of traditional dance compositions from his family and shared it with wellknown dancers including Indrani Rehman, Sonal Mansingh, Leela Samson, Sujata Dinesh, and Nalini Balakrishnan. He established his own institution, Meenakshi Sundaram Natiya Kala Nilayam, in Thanjavur and there he continues to groom young dancers.
Shri S. Swaminathan receives the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Award for his contribution to Bharatanatyam.