We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ramya Kapadia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ramya below.

Alright, Ramya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When you are a child, and a perceptive one at that, you pick up a lot of things unknowingly. Early on in my life, I understood that artists didn’t earn as well as professionals in other fields. Fortunately for me, I loved science as much as I did the arts, so I studied Biomedical Engineering, Medical Physics and Neuroscience with enthusiasm, while simultaneously pursuing vocal music and dance with equal gusto. In 2008, I moved to Durham, NC from Madison, WI. The plan was to work on my CV and apply for research positions either at Duke University or UNC-Chapel Hill. However, I was offered a 3 month Europe tour, singing for a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan. That tour led to many more and I never really applied to those research positions.
On one grueling rehearsal day, it struck me how despite being physically tired my soul felt so alive and nurtured. That was a feeling I never wanted to let go of. Being in the same room as other creatives who all thrive in the strict discipline of daily practice and the exhilaration of performance, being able to share that joy with audiences around the world are things that are impossible to achieve in any office setting, which are primarily bureaucratic in nature.
That’s when I knew that I had made the right decision to pursue the creative path full time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I consider myself to be a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in Bharatanatyam dance, Carnatic
music (South Indian classical dance & music forms), visual art (Warli tribal art from Western
India) and writing (children’s fiction). I have Master’s degrees in Medical Physics and Neuroscience but pursue the arts full time now. As a choreographer/composer/performer, I tour all over the United States & abroad to present Bharatanatyam solo & ensemble works. I also regularly provide vocalaccompaniment to dancers around the world and compose music for their productions.

In Knoxville, I run the Natyarpana School of Dance & Music, through which I shares the rich traditions of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam across the USA. I am a Teaching Artist with the Durham and United Arts Councils, Arts Access and the Tennessee Arts Commission. I also serve as an adjudicator for the National Dance Education Organization. Through these
affiliations, I am pursuing research to integrate the principles of my dance and music forms with the STEAM curriculum in schools, with a specific emphasis on providing accessibility to children with special needs.

Several awards that I received really helped boost my career and visibility in the field. received the Ella Pratt Emerging Artist Award from the Durham Arts Council in 2010, the Choreography Fellowship from the North Carolina Dance Alliance in 2016 and an Artist Support Grant from the NC Arts Council in 2020. I served on the Advisory Committee of the “Dance
at the Van Dyke” series at NC Dance Project (2019-2022) and was Associate Artistic Directorand Outreach Director at Prakriti Dance, MD (2014-2021). I continue to serve on the advisory board of Indian music and dance presenting organizations – the Leela Foundation and the South Indian Fine Arts Academy in NC and the Knoxville Indian Classical Music Group in
Knoxville, TN. More recently I have joined the Loghaven Residency host committee in Knoxville, TN.

I have been commissioned by Roopa Cultural Arts (2024), the American Dance Festival (2022), Durham Independent Dance Artists (2018, 2019), ISKCON (2015), Samskrita Bharati (2013, 2014, 2015) and Hum Sub (2012) to produce new works that reflect the global nature of of Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music as she perceives them. I have also been a resident artist at
Keshet Maker’s Space, NM, Kinetic Works, NC and the Croft Residency, MI.

In 2019, I received the Public Space Project award from Downtown Durham Inc., which resulted in a Warli mural reflecting Durham’s changing landscape from the 1600s to the present. My Warli artwork has been a part of the Black History Month exhibits at the Knoxville Art Alliance. I published her first book “Taikamaa & the Twin Stars” in 2023 and am currently working on the second book in the series.

I believe that art can and should tell stories that move audiences to becoming better and more compassionate human beings. The collaborators in my works are artists, scientists, literaryscholars and philosophers who all share my vision of creating a better world through art.

For my work in bringing communities together through the arts, I was awarded the Women of Inspiration AwardTM in Arts and Entertainment across USA & Canada in 2023 which I am very proud of. I hope to continue to build the artistic community of Knoxville TN and encourage diversity and access to the arts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Becoming a mother is when I truly understood what “resilience” meant. Becoming a mother completely changed my perception of myself, my capabilities, decision-making and organizational skills. I was already a semi-established touring and teaching artist by the time I had my daughter, and my days were packed with rehearsals, teaching and preparing for my tours, while taking care of a newborn with no help. I was heavily criticized as being a neglectful mother and wife, and for enjoying my work – the unfair criticism very nearly shattered me.
I had to decide then how I wanted to project my life to my kids. I decided that I wanted them to watch their mother work hard and be excellent at what she was passionate about, so that they could grow up and do the same. I wanted them to learn that it was important to put community at the forefront of everything they did. Though it was hard and I slept even less than I had before, this change in perspective changed how I showed up for the world, especially for new mothers and women in general. I learnt to ask for help and a I found a small community of mothers, all of them leaders in their own right to learn from, to lean on and to also offer support when they needed it.
Most of all, I learnt how to tap into my own strength, that there was beauty in being vulnerable and that I still had what it took to keep going.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe that art has the power to change lives in a very gentle way and is a powerful tool for self-expression. Art has a way of helping us come to terms with things that cannot be analyzed or understood by pure logic. It draws upon intuition and creativity – qualities that are unfortunately not encouraged today as “successful” qualities to have, but seem to be characteristic traits every individual who manages to lead a balanced life in the present chaotic world.
So, I aim to teach my students and community members to embrace the artistic and sensitive sides of themselves, rather than simply become performing machines. My mission is to use art to break barriers of language, race, religion, gender and economics, that we may become a compassionate and tolerant community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natyarpanadurham.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: @ramyakapadia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ramya.kapadia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramya-kapadia-1a7199289
• Youtube: @ramyakapadia8168

Image Credits

Komal Preet Kaur, Jennifer Scheib, Jon Jarvis, Amit Agarwal