32 Years of Crafting Inspired Dancing
Classical and
Classical and
all-time-new
Abhinava Dance Company — enchanting performances, world-class training, and cultural impact from Bangalore.
Abhinava Dance Company
Enchanting performances
Abhinava Dance Company (ADC) — the professional performing arm of Abhinava Arts Centre — delivers enchanting national and international performances. With its own Production House, ADC creates original concepts, lyrics, music scores, and bespoke costumes & props.
Showcasing highly skilled professional artists, Abhinava Dance Company performances are universally known as Magical.
National Recognition
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2023
We are supremely proud of our directors Smt. Nirupama Rajendra and Sri T.D. Rajendra who were conferred with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2023 from the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi.
Our honourable President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, conferred the award in a special ceremony on 6th March 2024 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi honour symbolizes the highest standard of excellence in the performing arts, recognizing sustained work of the highest professional order through performances, teaching and scholarship.
At a Glance
32+
Years
7.5M+
Audiences
180+
Productions
700+
Students
Abhinava Dance Company
Who We Are
Storytellers from Bharata
We are storytellers hailing from the land of the oldest oral storytelling tradition — Bharata (India) — the Land of Cultural Heritage.
If you listen carefully, at the end you'll be someone else.
Based out of Bangalore, South India, our production house — Abhinava Dance Company (ADC) — stands as one of the premier dance companies in the country.
ABHINAVA means "Classical and all-time-new", and as founders, our attempt is to create unique performances that reach out to a global audience.
Core Elements
Content · Style · Performance
Content
Poetic performances weaving traditional tales, mythology and memoirs through dynamic movement and expression.
Style
A rare blend of Kathak and Bharathanatyam, with vocabularies from the Natya tradition.
Performance
Stories conveyed through human emotions — light, sound, costume and ambiance creating theatrical spectacle.
Artistic Directors
Nirupama & Rajendra
Nirupama & Rajendra are one of India's foremost classical dancers — founders of Abhinava Dance Company, recognised worldwide for innovation, creativity, and imagination in Classical Art.
They are not only dancers, but also choreographers, teachers and storytellers with a vision of adapting traditional themes to reach audiences worldwide.
Stage Productions
Productions
Magical storytelling, breathtaking choreography, original music, and exquisite costumes — all created in-house.
Abhinava Dance School
Guru-Shishya Parampara
The training wing of Abhinava Arts Centre — offers holistic education in dance and culture to aspiring dancers. Our institute is recognized by ICCR for maintaining international standards of traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara training.
700+ students currently pursuing online and offline dance education at our institutions.
South Indian classical
Bharatanrityam
Hailing from the ancient temples of South India, Bharatanrityam encompasses the ancient codified techniques of movement and storytelling that are described in the centuries-old Natya Shastra.
North Indian classical
Kathak
With origins across North India, Kathak is a classical dance style characterized by powerful footwork, graceful spins, and expressive dramatic elements that are used in combination to tell a story.
The classical text
Natya Shastra Karanas
The Natya Shastra, also known as the Natya Veda, is a 5000-year old classical text on dramaturgy, wherein the classical dance styles of India have their origin. At Abhinava Arts Centre, students have the unique opportunity to explore the movement and theoretical content of this ancient text.
Research in the school
Deshi Marga Adavus
A novel creation in the space of classical dance by Guru Smt. Nirupama Rajendra, the Deshi Marga Adavus (DMA) represent the bridging of Bharatanatyam's foundational vocabularies with the Margi Karanas of the Natya Shastra. Learn more about DMA Research →
Community
Culture Alive
Madanothsava
Madanothsava revives a 1,600-year-old community festival that welcomes the arrival of spring with the same rigour and vibrance once known in earlier times. Abhinava brings this bygone tradition into light once more.
The festival begins at 7 am as maestro musicians open the day with auspicious music. Artists then move in procession, wearing specially created turbans inspired by the Vijayanagara period. The festival is inaugurated with the release of Madana’s flower arrow — the God of Love — followed by song and dance dedicated to spring. Families take part in traditional games, and the community gathers to dance around mango trees.
From morning till night, the air fills with Indian classical vocals and instrumental concerts, sand art, various forms of classical dance, folk art, Sanskrit discussion forums and more. Through nature, art and culture, Madanothsava invites everyone to celebrate the gentle yet powerful advent of spring.
Yuva Abhinava
Yuva Abhinava is a unique initiative that empowers young people to develop skills in the allied arts — music, painting, literature and more. Talented and able youth are given opportunities to share their creativity with peers through intimate in-house studio concerts.
In these performances, the young artists introduce classical art to at least sixty to eighty new youngsters who have never before attended a classical programme. Through this simple yet meaningful exchange, Yuva Abhinava helps classical arts reach a new generation while nurturing the confidence and voice of emerging artists.
About Us
Our Story
The mission that guides Abhinava, the dancers and teams on stage and behind it, and the artistic directors Nirupama & Rajendra.