Sundari K. Shridharani

Born in Hyderabad, Sindh, in undivided India, Shridharani started learning dance while at Santiniketan, thereafter she joined the Uday Shankar at Indian Cultural Centre, at Almora, where she trained in Kathakali under Guru Shankaran Namboodiri and in Manipuri dance under Guru Amubi Singh.

In 1947, she performed at the first International Youth Festival in Prague, and in the 1950s, she received a Fulbright Fellowship and also of the University of California, Los Angeles, through which travelled across several universities in US, giving lecture-demonstrations of Indian dances.

It started in one room and terrace above a Coffee House in Connaught Place, Delhi, with two students under noted artist K. S. Kulkarni.

Soon her efforts got noticed, and Pandit Nehru allotted her the half acre land for the institution.

Finally construction began around 1957 and eventually on 3 March 1963, the present building was inaugurated.