Kalashree Meena Santhosh

Kalashree Meena Santhosh is a performing artist and Secretary of Abhinaya Institute of Research and Fine Arts. She is a well-known dancer and knows different dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, and Traditional Folk dance. She learned Bharatanatyam from Guru Dr. Chitra Viswanathan, who is also her aunt. Dance has always been her passion. In between, she took a break to concentrate on her studies. But somewhere inside, Meena felt like dance is what she wanted to do. She realized that she needed to do something different; studying and getting a job was not her cup of tea. So she decided to choose dance as her profession.

She went to Bombay and completed her diploma, then started to perform in dance shows. She says that the kind of satisfaction she gets from performing is different, and she won’t get the same satisfaction from any other profession. From there, her journey as a dancer started. She won the ‘Karnataka Kalashree Award’ for Bharatanatyam and the ‘Nritya Kaumudi’ title for Manipuri dance. According to her, dance is worship. It's like oxygen to her, without which she cannot live. Dance has always helped her to maintain her mental health and fitness. Once, she performed a program named ‘Brahma Samhita’ for ISCON. Abhinaya Institute composed sixty-four verses for that show. She did the role of Lord Krishna and got a great appreciation for her performance. She says that she was able to educate people about culture and mythology through her dance. Her family is very supportive.

She is from an artistic family. Her mom is an artist, her uncle is a singer, and her aunt is a dancer. There is no need for her to look for inspiration somewhere else. She considers it a blessing to get such a supportive family. She advises that today’s generation must give equal importance to culture and tradition. They should learn any art form. Along with modernization, they should also have basic knowledge about their culture.