biography
Sheejith Krishna studied, then taught, at Kalakshetra Foundation, the world-renowned institution for the classical arts in Chennai, India, for 21 years (1989-2010). Now an independent artiste and choreographer, he has learnt Bharatanatyam, percussion, and vocal music from such stalwarts as Sarada Hoffman, Vikku Vinayakaram, and S Rajaram. He choreographed and directed for the Kalakshetra Repertory in 2007 the innovative Masquerade, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s Man in the Iron Mask in the idiom of Bharatanatyam, to critical and popular acclaim. Winner of the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2007), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha’s Yagnaraman Award for Excellence in Dance (2010), and the Ram Gopal Award for Best Male Dancer (AttenDANCE, 2015), he has performed lead/major roles in Kalakshetra Repertory productions while choreographing his own solo and ensemble works. He has taught workshops and courses for prestigious organizations and choreographed solo and group productions for other eminent artistes around the world. In 2011, he choreographed the dance sequences for Ang Lee’s Academy award-winning motion picture, Life of Pi. He received a national production grant from the Government of India’s Ministry of Culture in 2015 for his original Bharatanatyam adaptation of Don Quixote. His choreographies include Masquerade (2007), Krishna Bharatam (2009), Parinaamam (2010), Pravaha (2013), Yathadarshe Tathaatmani (2014) and Don Quixote (2015).