Alarmél Valli is a leading Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer, acclaimed internationally for her ability to turn a traditional grammar into a subtle, deeply internalized, personal dance poetry. Her dance is uncompromisingly classical, but is, at the same time, an undeniable language of self-expression. It is both a stylised idiom and an idiolect, blurring the boundaries between tradition and the individual talent, inheritance and invention. In her choreography, the Bharatanatyam idiom is not merely a received grammar, it is a reinvented one.

Trained by great masters, Pandanallur Sri Chokkalingam Pillai and his son Sri Subbaraya Pillai, she has enriched her dance vocabulary and extended the frontiers of her dance tradition to evolve her own distinctive style, which has been described as “uniquely individualistic…an effortless synchronisation of apparent contradictions - linearity and lyricism, symmetry and sinuosity, precision and poetry".

Alarmel Valli’s perception of dance has also been enriched by her study of Odissi, under renowned Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena. Her study of Padams and Javalis under the eminent classical musician Smt.T.Muktha, of the Veena Dhanammal style of music, has helped her explore the ideal of dance as visual music. Her work expresses the subtle distinction, between the literal translation of the lyric into body language and the mature, evolved transmutation of music into movement.

The late A.K.Ramanujan says of the classical Tamil anthologies of Sangam poetry, authored around 2000 years ago, that “not to know them, is not to know a unique and major poetic achievement of Indian ivilization.” Valli’s extensive research on these poems has resulted in a significant body of work - a fusion of the poetry of words, music and movement.

Amongst numerous awards received by Alarmél Valli, are two of India’s highest civilian honours –the Padmasri and the Padma Bhushan, conferred by the President of India and the Chevalier of Arts and Letters award from the French Government . She has received the ‘Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris’, the award of The Sangeet Natak Akademy – the apex body for Indian Music, Dance and Drama, the State award of Kalaimamani from the Tamilnadu Government, the title of Nritya Choodamani from the Krishna Gana Sabha in Madras.

She founded ‘Dipashikha’ –a Centre for Fine Arts and has choreographed works for her students that have been presented in Japan and the US. Through lecture demonstrations, master classes, workshops and seminars in India and abroad, Valli shares her thoughts on Bharatanatyam and on tradition as a dynamic process of renewal and change. A few of the forums in which she has worked, include Spic Macay in India, the Societe Italiana del Flauto Dolce, The Philharmonic society in Rome, the International Sommertanzwochen in Vienna and Universities across the US.

A film on Alarmel Valli was made for the Omnibus series, on BBC 2, by producer Michael Macintyre. Alarmel Valli has also been featured in dance documentaries by noted Indian producers like the late G. Aravindan and Prakash Jha, by the BBC (in The Spirit of Asia Series), the Nederlands Broadcasting Company, Arte (France) and Japanese National Television. The Films Division of India commissioned a film on her for the Indian National Archives. Titled ‘Pravahi’, it has been directed by eminent film-maker Arun Khopkar, with cinematography by Madhu Ambat.

Choreography

• Dance choreography in Bharatanatyam - working with poets and musicians to create both group and solo compositions. Collaboration with musicians like Prema Ramamoorthy, S.Rajeshwari( Madras), Latha Ramchand, Savita Narasimhan, T.K Ramakrishna, Lalgudi Ganesh, Pandanallur Srinivasan.
  
  
• The study and interpretation of ancient Sangam poetry in dance, over a period of 18 years to give the poems a visual and melodic dimension. Many poems from anthologies like the Kalithogai, Kurunthogai, Akananooru, Purananooru, Nattrinal, Paripadal have been choreographed in dance as fusions of the poetry of words, music and movement. Music has been specially commissioned and composed for these dance compositions.
  
  
• Workshops, lecture demonstrations and master Classes in Dance and its connection to the theatre, with special focus on the relevance of Bharatanatyam in today's context, as a dynamic, evolving dance tradition
  
  
• Study of music composition for dance and its importance in interpretation of themes and poems.