Lata Pada
| Lata Pada (ಲತಾ ಪಾದ) | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Lata November 7, 1947 Bombay, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Education | Learnt under master teachers Kalaimamani Kalyanasundaram, and Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan. |
| Alma mater | Elphinstone College in Mumbai |
| Occupation | Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher and Author |
| Known for | Bharatanatyam |
| Awards |
|
| Website | www |
Lata Pada, (ಲತಾ ಪಾದ) CM (born, Nov.7, 1947) is an Indian-born Canadian choreographer and Bharatanatyam dancer. Pada is the founder and artistic director of Sampradaya Dance Creations, a dance company that performs South Asian dance. She is also the founder and director of Sampradaya Dance Academy, a leading professional dance training institution that is the only South Asian dance school in North America affiliated with the prestigious, UK-based Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing. Pada founded the dance company in 1990; Pada said that she founded the company because she wanted to showcase Bharatantyam dance as an art form throughout the world. Pada is known as an influential figure in South Asian-style dance in Canada.
Born on Nov. 7, 1947, Lata was the eldest of four children in a well-educated family. Her father was an electrical engineer in the Royal Navy, and her mother eventually had a career in insurance management. She gave up her studies in science to pursue Indian dance, when her first husband, Vishnu Pada, took her to Thompson, Manitoba, where he was working for Inco, she was able to combine her domestic duties with a social life and her artistic vocation. She and Vishnu were the first Indian family in the mining town.
Lata, who attended Elphinstone College in Mumbai, trained under the gurus Kalaimamani Kalyanasundaram and Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan. Pada lives in Mississauga, near Toronto. Pada married geologist Vishnu Pada, (ವಿಷ್ಣು ಪಾದ) on October 30, 1964, when she was 17 years old. Marriage took place in Canada. Vishnu was graduated from McGill University in geology; when he came to India he saw Lata and the marriage negotiations were done. After coming to Canada, Lata Pada became a member of a sorority, and started participating in the programs.
Lata and her husband, Vishnu Pada moved first to Indonesia before settling in Sudbury, Ontario, nearly 40 years ago. She devoted her life in looking after her husband, two daughters, and teaching dance. She was visiting India almost every year to train with her dance guru. In 1985 travelling ahead of her family so that she could practice for a scheduled performance in Bangalore. Her family was to join her later for a vacation. They never made it. Her husband and daughters were on the Delhi-bound Air India flight 182 that crashed off the coast of Ireland-victims of a terrorist plot. Numbed with grief, she instinctively turned to her only remaining anchor, dance. On the larger canvas of universal grief, the two personal questions that ring through 'Revealed by Fire' are: "If you take away my husband, am I still a wife? If you take away my children, am I still a-mother. Lata Pada, received a master's degree in fine arts from York University in 1997.[17],
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