Chitra Visweswaran as a Dancer      

                                                                                                    Though Chitra Visweswaran’s formal training in dance began with 
                                                                                              Western Classical Ballet in London at the age of five, her first Guru, at the 
                                                                        age of three, was actually her mother, Smt. Rukmini Padmanabhan, who was an 
                                                              excellent dancer trained in the Uday Shankar School of dance and Bharatanatyam. It is to 
                                                   her that Chitra owes her artistic and creative vision . To this was harnessed an insatiable intellectual 
                                      and cerebral quest which she owes to her father, Sri. N. Padmanabhan, a brilliant Engineer. After initiation 
                           into dance by her mother, Chitra undertook training in Western Classical Ballet in London, which was followed by 
              training in Manipuri and Kathak in Calcutta . At the age of ten, she went under the tutelage of one of the best devadasis of    Tiruvidaimardur , Smt.T.A Rajalakshmi, who was settled in Calcutta. Her Arangetram (first maiden performance) took place with ten months, an astonishingly short period to achieve the degree of proficiency that Chitra Did.                                                                    

She continued her Bharatanatyam training in Kolkata and in parallel, studied the Uday Shankar School of dance. Her youth spent at Kolkata was studded with frequent, laudable, noteworthy stage appearances. Not confining herself to the physical aspect of dancing alone, Chitra, taking full advantage of the frequent closures of Calcutta University studied dance theory, dance history, philosophy and world religion entirely on her own and subsequently became deeply involved in interdisciplinary search and research. In 1970, on completion of B.A. (Hons.) in English from Calcutta University, she received the National Scholarship for advanced study in Bharatanatyam from the Government of India, at a time when only two scholarships were awarded throughout the country. She spent her scholarship period of four years under the doyen of Bharatanatyam, Vazhuvoor Ramaiyya Pillai, at Chennai. Her experience as his sishya widened her aesthetic vision even as her earlier Gurus’ training gave her excellent grammar and technique. On completion of her scholarship, Chitra started working on her own, bringing together the gift from her Gurus and her knowledge of the cognate forms of arts, harnessing to it a scholastic approach and holistic vision in order to develop a wholly individualistic philosophy of movement and language of communication. Her repertoire which is vast and unique is born of intense research at all levels of interpretation.

Her vision of dance in totality and her husband’s vision of music are ensured a continuum through Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts, established by the couple at Chennai in 1975.