With precision and sparkling grace, Ananda Shankar Jayant performs and teaches the classical dance styles of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.
Why you should listen
Ananda Shankar Jayant is trained in two traditional forms of classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Both forms require long training and precise timing to express their essence -- and both forms, in Shankar Jayant's hands, are capable of exploring deep truths.
As a choreographer and performer, she uses dance to talk about gender issues (as in 1999's What About Me?), mythology and philosophy, setting these carefully handed-down forms of dance onto a modern stage. She leads the Shankarananda Kalakshetra school in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and is a scholar of dance and art, lecturing frequently on both throughout India.
What others say
My language called dance paints before you a canvas of life and beyond -- of our fallible self groping in the darkness for that light of eternity.
Ananda Shankar Jayant’s TED Talk
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Q&A
Q&A with Ananda Shankar Jayant: The power of myth and metaphor
June 18, 2010
Before her TEDTalk posted today, the TED Blog caught up with classical Indian dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, she continued dancing and gave an amazing performance at the TEDIndia conference in November 2009. Now in remission and still enjoying life to its fullest, she gives an update on […]
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Fighting cancer with a dance: Ananda Shankar Jayant on TED.com
June 18, 2010
Renowned classical Indian dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant was diagnosed with cancer in 2009. She tells her personal story of not only facing the disease but dancing through it, and gives a performance revealing the metaphor of strength that helped her do it. (Recorded at TEDIndia, November 2009 in Mysore, India. Duration: 16:07) Watch Ananda Shankar […]
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The Buzz: "Hats off" to Ananda Shankar Jayant, cancer conqueror
November 6, 2009
Photo: Ananda Shankar at TEDIndia, Session 7, “Power of Stories,” November 6, 2009, in Mysore, India. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson Dancer and choreographer Ananda Shankar Jayant brought the audience to its feet at the conclusion of Session 7 with a moving story of her battle against cancer — and the way she reclaimed […]
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