Guru Supriya Desai

Karnataka Kalashree Guru Smt. Supriya Desai, is an icon of classical Indian Dances in North Carolina and is an internationally known choreographer, dancer and teacher.

A top-rated dancer skilled in the Indian dance styles of Bharthanatyam and Kuchipudi, Supriya Desai is a performer par excellence. She has a long list of outstanding performances that highlight her illustrious dancing career including:

National award winning TV production “Nectar in Stone”, filmed at the world famous Belur and Halebid temples and telecast world-wide and many other TV performances as a graded artist
Several high profile performances in the eighties, including first World kannada Conference in Mysore, ICCR sponsored events, Festival of Indian in the former Soviet Union, India International Trade Fair, All-India seminar on Dance Education, New Delhi ,India etc.
Performances for prestigious organizations in the US such as SV Temple of Pittsburgh, Durham Arts Council, Museum of History's auditorium inauguration, Duke University Institute of the Arts, Performance series etc.
Lead performer in her own productions including Sampradaya, Meera, Nritya Samagama, Nritya Taranga, Sri Krishna Tulabharam, Mahishasura Mardhini at 2002 AKKA World Convention in Detroit.

Supriya's highly acclaimed choreographic presentations are marked by high levels of technical perfection and movement, visual geometry and symmetry in formations. Starting with the dance-drama Mayura Darshana (1988-89), Supriya's career is embellished with outstanding presentations and choreographic creations such as “Meera”(1995), that combined three distinct dance styles and was performed in 15 cities in the US, “Sri Rama Charitra” (1996), “Jai Shiva Shankar” (1996), “Vishnu Vaibhavam” (2001), “Mahishasura Mardhini” (2002), “Shri Krishna Parijatha” (2002), “Shri Krishna Tulabharam” (2003) New Directions(2007) and Surge(2009). Her choreographic wizardry and the excellence of her productions have been presented at many prestigious events, including World Kannada Conferences of 2000,2002 and 2006. Her more recent presentations using non-traditional themes such as “Rhythm-the heartbeat of dance”(2009), “M&M” as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. (2010), “Aladdin” (2011) in Hindi , “Ganeshaaya Namaha” in2013 and “Karnataka Kshetra Vaibhava” on the monuments of Karnataka, presented at the 2015 NAVIKA World Kannada Convention got amazing audience appreciation from packed halls.

The high quality of Supriya's presentations has a lot to do with the caliber of her students that perform in them. Supriya has the uncanny ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of her students and train them accordingly. Every one of her 23 Arangetrams, so far, have been outstanding and have reflected the hard work she puts not only in training them but also in motivating them into going the extra mile. In June 2007 her student became an auditioned artist of Doordarshan, Indian Television. Two of her students won second places in national dance competitions at the 2014 AKKA world Kannada Convention in Atlanta.

For her tremendous accomplishments in the field of dance Supriya has been given prestigious awards and titles such as “Karnataka Kalashree” by the Sangeeta Nritya Academy of Karnataka, “Sathyabhama Teacher Excellence Award – 2016”, “Swara Kala Gaurav Puraskar”. She has also received grants from prestigious organizations such as United Arts Council, Durham Arts Council, Fayetteville Arts Council, NC Arts Commission, etc.

Supriya has been teaching classical dances in North Carolina for the last 23 years under the banner of Payal Dance Academy, with a parampara that includes Guru Smt. Sunanda Devi and the late Guru Narmada Rao under whom she has learned Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi.

Website: http://www.payaldanceacademy.com

Video Samples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ac_Ni5w2w