The niece of Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first deputy Prime Minister, she was an exponent of performances fusing Bharatanatyam with Yoga and martial arts like Kalarippayattu.
She was born to an agnostic doctor father and a devout Hindu mother in Vada, Maharashtra.
She started with Dasi Attam, a form of dance practiced by temple dancers in southern India, under the tutelage of Ellappa Pillai.
[1][2] Although Chandralekha received her early training in Bharatanatyam, she went on to change her focus to postmodern fusion dances that incorporated elements from other dances, martial arts like Kalarippayattu, and performing arts.
[3][4] Her essay 'Militant Origins of Indian Dance', originally published in Social Scientist in 1979,[5] was later reprinted in the volume Improvised Futures: Encountering the Body in Performance, part of the India Since the 90s series published by Tulika Books.