Gopika Varma
At Samanvay 50: performs Satyabhama in Mohiniyattam, in the first act of the double bill.
Training and lineage.
Mohiniyattam, Chennai. Dancing from the age of three.
Gopika Varma began dancing at three under her mother, and from the age of ten studied Mohiniyattam under Girija and Chandrika Kurup. She then trained for close to a decade with Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma and with her daughter Sreedevi Rajan, and learned abhinaya from the Kathakali exponent Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair.
She holds the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2018 for Mohiniyattam, the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award (2008), and the Kalaimamani (2004) — the first dancer to receive it for Mohiniyattam. Her other honours include Nritya Choodamani (2010) and Yuva Kala Bharathi (2001).
She is the founder of Dasyam, Adyar, Chennai.