Shantala Shivalingappa

Shantala Shivalingappa was born in Madras, India, and grew up in Paris. At the Kuchipudi Art Academy in Madras, she was taught the classical Indian dance style Kuchipudi by her mentor and teacher Vempati Chinna Satyam. Driven by the will and the passion to introduce Western audiences to Kuchipudi, she has appeared at numerous festivals and theatres all over the world since 1993 – including the Festival d’Avignon, Fall for Dance Festival New York, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Théâtre de la Villa Paris, and I Teatri Reggio Emilia. She played Miranda in Peter Brook’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Ophelia in his Hamlet. She has also worked with Maurice Béjart (1789…et nous), Bartabas (Chimère) and Ushio Amagatsu (Ibuki). At the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, she appeared, among others, in O Dido and Le Sacre du printemps. She performed in Pina Bausch’s Néfés (2003) and Bamboo Blues (2007) at the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in June 2012. Most recently, Shantala Shivalingappa choreographed Nineteen Mantras (director: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, 2012) and toured through Germany, France, the Netherlands and Australia with her Kuchipudi solos Gamaka, Namasya and Play.