Video: Meet Ananda Shankar Jayant, Fighting Cancer With Dance

Ananda Shankar Jayant is one of the renowned Bharata Natyam and Kuchipudi dancers of India. She was honoured with Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian award from the Government of India in the year 2007. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. She tells her personal story of not only facing the disease but dancing through it, and gives a performance revealing the metaphor of strength that helped her do it.

Ananda Shankar Jayant is trained in two traditional forms of classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Both forms require long training and precise timing to express their essence — and both forms, in Shankar Jayant’s hands, are capable of exploring deep truths.

As a choreographer and performer, she uses dance to talk about gender issues (as in 1999’s What About Me?), mythology and philosophy, setting these carefully handed-down forms of dance onto a modern stage. She leads the Shankarananda Kalakshetra school in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and is a scholar of dance and art, lecturing frequently on both throughout India.

The Logical Indian community applauds Anands Shankar Jayant for the spirit and amazing strength she has shown.