She made her stage debut at 9 ½ at The Indian Institute of Fine Arts, Madras, and was conferred the Natya Kala Bhushan award.
[8][9] Her research in classical Tamil literature and the anthologies of the 2000-year-old Sangam poetry has resulted in a significant repertoire of dance poems.
A film on Alarmel Valli was made for the Omnibus series, on BBC One, by producer Michael Macintyre.
Alarmel Valli has also been featured in dance documentaries by noted Indian producers like the late G. Aravindan and Prakash Jha, by the BBC (in The Spirit of Asia Series), the Netherlands Broadcasting Company, Arte (France), and Japanese National Television.
[11][12] Alarmel Valli is married to Bhaskar Ghose, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.