Neila Sathyalingam

Neila Sathyalingam (8 February 1938[1] – 9 March 2017) was a Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor of Sri Lankan Tamil origin.

The second of four daughters of a well-to-do dental surgeon and a housewife,[2][3] Neila Balendra was born in 1938 in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

In 1954, she won the gold medal at the All-Ceylon Dance Festival and was selected to perform for Elizabeth II[4] when the Queen visited Sri Lanka in April 1954 during her tour of the Commonwealth after acceding to the throne.

[2] At 18, she enrolled in Kalakshetra, a cultural academy located in Madras (now Chennai) which was established to preserve traditional values in Indian art and reputed to be one of the best dance institutions in India,[4] under the tutelage of Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986).

[4] In 1974, Neila moved to Singapore after American company Uniroyal Chemicals,[7] for which her husband worked as an area sales manager, was posted there.

[2] In Singapore, Neila was exposed to dancers of different cultural backgrounds and traditions, inspiring her to create new Indian dance steps based on classical foundations.

Starting with 20 students, the company expanded in size and significance, and has staged numerous arangetrams (dance débuts) and performances in Singapore and abroad, including Australia,[8] Indonesia[9] and Vietnam.

[11] Together with fellow Cultural Medallion holders Som Said and Yang Choong Lian, Neila was a choreographer for the Lion City Angels, a multiracial children's dance troupe formed in 1988.

Other major achievements of Neila's include the dance-drama Kannagi, staged for the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1998, and the "Fire" segment of the performance The Rhythm of Life staged by the People's Association Cultural Troupe in November 2001; the former was said to have "stretched the bounds of traditions to its limits and succeeded in offering something to a range of audiences far wider than what a traditional dance-drama would have done".

[2] On 14 and 15 September 2007, Neila staged at the Victoria Theatre what has been termed her "last mega-production", an Indian epic dance drama called Sivagami written by Kalki Krishnamurthy (1899–1954), which involved 65 dancers from Apsaras Arts and from India.