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  SHARADA MOORTHY SRIPADAM, 60, of San Jose died on June 12, 2026, after bravely battling cancer. She was a student of Guru Adyar Lakshman. Sharada attended NIT Trichy to receive a BE in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 1987, followed by an MS in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She was a respected and beloved leader and colleague throughout her career at Cisco Systems, Inforel Technologies, LinkedIn, and Atlassian. She was a brilliant engineer, gifted and talented Bharatanatyam dancer, and an ardent marathon runner.   Geeta Chandran and Sharon Lowen will receive the YADADRI NATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD on July 25, 2026 at Hyderabad during the Yadadri National Dance Festival by Kalakrithi Nrithyalaya.  Krishna Gana Sabha confers NRITYA CHOODAMANI award on Indira Kadambi for 2026 in December. Sangeet Natak Akademi awardees for dance for 2024 and 2025. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs. 3,00,000 while the Akademi Award carries a purse money of Rs. 1,00,000 besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram. LIST OF AKADEMI FELLOWS (AKADEMI RATNA) Ramlal Bareth, A V Anand, Rita Ganguly, Puru Dadheech, Chittaranjan Jyotishi, Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma, Sudharani Raghupathy SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI AWARDS (AKADEMI PURASKAR) for 2024 Rajeswari Sainath (Bharatanatyam), Bipul Chandra Das (Kathak), Rajkumari Thambalsana Devi (Manipuri), Veena Murthy Vijay (Kuchipudi), Bichitrananda Swain (Odissi), Prema Ozah Borbayan (Sattriya), Sreedevi Rajan (Mohiniattam), Nripen Sahis (Chhau), Shashidharan Nair (Creative and Experimental), Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan (Music for Dance- Kathakali), Surya Narayana Kumara (Music for Dance - Kuchipudi), Keremane Shivananda Hegde (Other major traditions of Dance and Dance Theatre - Yakshagana) FIELD OF ACTIVITY: OVERALL AND OTHERS (for 2024) T S Sathyavathi (Overall Contribution in Music), Voleti Rangamani (Overall Contribution in Dance), Shubhada Varadkar (Scholarship in Performing Arts - Dance), Tapati Chowdhurie (Art Critique - Performing Arts), Sunanda Nair (Overseas - Dance - Mohiniattam) SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI AWARDS (AKADEMI PURASKAR) for 2025 Roja Kanan (Bharatanatyam), Krishan Mohan Mishra (Maharaj) & Vaswati Mishra & Ram Mohan Maharaj (Trio, Kathak), Kalamandalam Krishnakumar (Kathakali), Irengbam Nalini Devi (Manipuri), P. Nagajothy & Seetha Nagajothy (Joint, Kuchipudi), Ileana Citaristi (Odissi), Mallika Kandali (Sattriya), Girija Chandran (Mohiniattam), Pagulu Jena (Chhau-Mayurbhanj), K Hariprasad (Music for Dance – Bharatanatyam), Bhaskar Jyoti Ojah (Music for Dance - Sattriya), S. Kumar (Other major tradition of Dance Theatre - Bhagavathamela), Usha Nangiar (Major tradition of Theatre - Nangiarkoothu) FIELD OF ACTIVITY: OVERALL AND OTHERS (for 2025) Shiv Narayan Jha (Kunal - Overall contribution in Theatre), Maneesha Sathe (Overall contribution in Dance - Kathak), Rakesh Sinha (Overall contribution - Art Photography), Manjari Sinha (Art Critique, Performing Arts), TS Nandakumar (Overseas - Music - Mridangam) Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Yuva Puraskar for dance for 2024 and 2025. The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar carries a purse money of Rs. 25,000 besides a Tamrapatra and an Angavastram. USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN YUVA PURASKAR - 2024 Rahul Dev Mondal (Bharatanatyam), Namrata Rai (Kathak), Kottakal Pradeep (Kathakali), Phuritshabam Debajani Devi (Manipuri), Ajay Srinivas Chakravarthy (Kuchipudi), Gaurishankar Dash (Odissi), Meenakshi Medhi (Sattriya), Gopika G Nath (Mohiniattam), Kuna Samal (Chhau- Seraikella), Lalit Khatana (Creative and Experimental), Lukram Tamphamani Singh (Music for Dance - Manipuri), Debiprasad Mishra (Allied Theatre Arts - Lighting) OVERALL CONTRIBUTION / SCHOLARSHIP IN PERFORMING ARTS - 2024 Amit Khinchi (Kathak), Shilpa Nanjappa (Bharatanatyam) USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN YUVA PURASKAR - 2025 V T Satchidanandan (Bharatanatyam), Devika Devendra S Mangalamukhi (Kathak), Kalamandalam Neeraj (Kathakali), Tongbram Roneld Meeitei (Manipuri), Vedantam Siddhendra Varaprasad (Kuchipudi), Namrata Mehta (Odissi), Niranjan Saikia Barbayan (Sattriya), Aswathi Sankarlal (Mohiniattam), Subhashree Swain (Chhau - Mayurbhanj), Satwika Penna (Other major traditions of Dance & Dance Theatre - Andhranatyam), Pavani Pasumarthi (Music for dance) OVERALL CONTRIBUTION / SCHOLARSHIP IN PERFORMING ARTS - 2025 Himanshu Darmora (Music), Sayak Mitra and Akash Mallick (Joint - Theatre)  'In recognition of his unparalleled contribution towards promoting Bharatanatyam on a global scale,' JAI GOVINDA received the NAAD YOGI AWARD from the hands of NDP minister, Mr. Jagrup Barr, at a special event presented by the NAAD Arts Centre on May 16, 2026 in Vancouver, BC.  Kalasagar presented KALASAGAR AWARDS for the year 2026 on May 28, 2026 at Kaaralmanna Kunchu Nair Memorial Trust Hall, Kerala. The awardees are: K. B. Raj Anand - Art Criticism Kalluvazhi Vasu - Vesham Kottakkal P. D. Namboodiri - Music Kalamandalam Narayanankutty & Vijayamaniyamma - Chenda Kodassery Parameswaran Nair - Maddalam Kottakkal Ramachandran - Chutti  Government of Karnataka to confer NATYA RANI SHANTALA AWARD 2026 on Bharatanatyam dancer PRATHIBHA PRAHLAD. This is the highest Karnataka State Govt award instituted for the art of dance.  Madras Music Academy announced its dance awardees for 2026. NRITYA KALANIDHI: G Narendra NRITYA KALA ACHARYA: A Janardhanan DANCE MUSICIAN AWARD: S Rajeswari and TK Padmanabhan Dance awardees will receive the awards at the inauguration of The Music Academy's 20th Annual Dance Festival on January 3, 2027.  The Kerala Government's top national cultural award with a cash prize of Rs.3 lakhs in the name of legendary Guru Gopinath, will be given to the Bharatanatyam couple V.P. DHANANJAYAN and SHANTA DHANANJAYAN and Kerala Natanam artiste AMBIKA MOHAN. This Puraskar is organized by Guru Gopinath Natana Gramam on behalf of the cultural department. The awards will be given shortly by the Chief Minister of the State.  Urmila Sathyanarayanan is the convenor of the Natya Kala Conference in 2026 and 2027. Highlights ; Obituaries |
