RAMYA S. KAPADIA is a Knoxville-based Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, instructor, and a Carnatic vocalist (South Indian classical dance and music forms). Ramya has toured all over the United States and abroad to present solo and group works. She regularly provides vocal accompaniment to dancers around the world and composes music for their productions.  

Ramya has master’s degrees in Medical Physics and Neuroscience and pursues the arts full time now. She runs the Natyarpana School of Dance & Music in Durham, NC, through which she shares the rich traditions of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam across the USA. She is also the Associate Artistic and Outreach Director of Maryland-based Prakriti Dance. 

She received the Ella Pratt Emerging Artist Award from the Durham Arts Council in 2010, the Choreography Fellowship from the North Carolina Dance Alliance in 2016, and an Artist Support Grant from the NC Arts Council in 2020. She is on the Advisory Committee of the “Dance at the Van Dyke” series at Greensboro Dance Project and a Teaching Artist with the Durham and United Arts Councils and Arts Access in North Carolina. Through these affiliations, she is pursuing research to integrate the principles of her 2000-year old form with the STEAM curriculum in schools, emphasizing accessibility to children with special needs.  

Ramya believes that art can and should tell stories that move audiences to becoming better and more compassionate human beings. The collaborators in her works are artists, scientists, literary scholars, and philosophers who all share her vision of creating a better world through art. She is grateful to her many mentors for providing her with rich and varied experiences in the arts.