Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair (27 March 1914 – 15 August 1990) was a Kathakali dancer from Kerala in India.
[4] A native of Cheruthazham in Payyanur Taluk of Kannur district in North Malabar, Kerala he was initiated into Kathakali in his early teenage years under the tutelage of Guru Chandu Panikker.
By 19, he was noticed by Kerala Kalamandalam co-founder, poet Vallathol Narayana Menon, who inducted Krishnan Nair into his institute, then near Mulankunnathukavu, north of Thrissur in central Keralawhere that Krishnan Nair trained under Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Thakazhi Kunchu Kurup, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair and Mani Madhava Chakyar.
Krishnan Nair had his higher studies on Rasa-abhinaya (facial emotions which stressed on eye exercises) from the Kudiyattam maestro Natyacharya Māni Mādhava Chākyār, who too won the Padma Shri.
[6] Krishnan Nair, towards the second half of his life, had made Tripunithura near Kochi his home.