Surya is a multitalented budding artist of Bangalore. Born and brought up in Bangalore (South Karnataka), his dreams of pursuing a career in dance brought him to Bangalore. He has been trained in three forms of classical dance – Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, and Kathak.
Surya has also had training in Yakshagana, Carnatic music and Drama. It is rare to find an artist trained in so many fields. Being a trained classical singer he has given a number of performances and won prizes in several competitions. Very passionate about his dance and wanting to make it big in this field, he is a very sincere and dedicated artist. In a scenario where we find very few male dancers, Surya is a highly promising star. He likes to explore the various avenues in this field and learns more by performing with other well-known artists.
He has been trained by Guru Smt. Maya Rao in Kathak, Vyjayanthi Kashi and Veena Murthy Vijay in Kuchipudi, Chandrashekar Navada and Sanjay Shantaram in Bharatanatyam, Shivram Panamboor, Chandrashekar Navada, and Purusthothama Rao in Yakshagana, and Vidwan M Narayan and Vidwan M. V. Ganesh Raj in vocal.
He is equally good at playing instruments like the morching, harmonium, keyboard, natuvanga, kanjeera, dolak, and many more. He has the privilege of playing morching, and natuvanga for some of the well-known dancers at Bangalore.
Very rarely do we find classical dancers exploring our rich folk art, Yakshagana. He has learnt this art form for 14 years and performs regularly. He has performed for more than 200 shows with Nandaneshwara Yakshagana Makkala Mela and with other amateur melas.
Surya is a ‘B’ grade auditioned Doordarshan artist in Bharatanatyam. He is a ‘B’ grade artist under audition by Song and Drama and Light and Sound Division, Government of Karnataka. He has secured first class in both junior and senior grade exams in Bharatanatyam and has successfully completed his vidwath conducted by the Karnataka Secondary Board.
He has more than 300 performances to his credit in Bharatanatyam. He has performed at the Lok Kala Mahothsav held in Lucknow, U.P., Navaratri festival held at Vaishno Devi temple, Kattra, Jammu and Kashmir, Natarajothsava festival — Mysore, Hampi dance festival — Hampi and many more.
He is currently doing his B.A. in Kathak and Choreography, at the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography (NIKC). He is also learning and performing in ballets with the NIKC team.
He has been an active member of the N. C. C. (National Cadet Corps). He was the leader of the cultural team of N.C.C sent from Goa and Karnataka Directorate. He has got the best outstanding cated of the year (2001) award by 18 KAR.BN.N.C.C.
Dancers who perform in more than one style generally face a lot of criticism. Surya will have to work hard to perfect all the styles of dance he is learning and be focused in achieving his goals, because for a dancer perfection matters than the number of styles learnt.
This multitalented artist has a very bright future. Drishti wishes him success.