The Temple

Founded in 1997 by the Kesavan sisters, Bharathaa Arts aspires to expose its students to the traditions and rich heritage of Bharatanatyam. Since its inception, Bharathaa Arts has become synonymous with innovative, creative and exciting dance presentations. With the able guidance of its founders, Bharathaa Arts has performed on various local and international stages, with multiple sold-out shows for productions such as Divine Love, VARNA, Kaveri, Utchi Thilagam, Stree Shakti, ULA and Madhavi’s Story. In many of such productions, Bharathaa Arts and the Kesavan sisters have collaborated with other well-known local and foreign artistes such as Srimathi Maanu (Chennai), Srimathi Parvathy Ghantasala (Chennai), Srimathi Anjana Anand (Chennai), Christopher Gurusamy (Chennai), Srimathi Rama Vaidyanathan (Chennai), Sri Ajith Bhaskaran (Malaysia) and many more.

The countries in which Bharathaa Arts has performed includes India, Brazil, Paris, Australia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Notably, Bharathaa Arts performed at Brahmotsav at ISKCON (2009) in Bangalore, at the Vrindavan Festival (2009) in Mathura, at the Sripuram Golden Temple at Vellore in 2012 and at the Karur Temple for the Karur Natyanjali Festival (2013). They also participated in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2015 and more recently, showcased ULA in Adelaide in 2019. The Kesavan Sisters, together with six senior dancers from Bharathaa Arts, were one of the 1000 dancers who performed at the Rajarajeswaram 1000 at Tanjore Temple, organised by ABHAI, Chairman Dr. Padma Subramaniam on 25 September 2010. Bharathaa Arts also has had the privilege of being the first Singapore dance school to perform at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam at Nada Neeranjanam Hall on 20th December 2012. Students of Bharathaa Arts also perform regularly at many temple and community events, including events organised by the People’s Association. Under the tutelage of Kesavan Sisters, 24 students have been able to successfully complete their arangetrams to date. Bharathaa Arts has also won the 1st Prize for the National Travelling Dance Competition organised by the People’s Association during Chingay 2011.

The Kesavan sisters have received several awards, notably the Artistic Excellence Award (2000) from the late president S. R. Nathan, Bharatha Kalai Mani Award (2002) from their guru Neila Sathayalingam, Natya Chudar Award (2006) from Bishan Community Club's IAEC, the prestigious Merit Award (2014) from People’s Association and most recently the Natya Acharyamani Award (2021) by Apsaras Arts.