Apsaras Dance Company is Bharatanatyam Redefined. With our feet firmly planted in the rigorous foundations of the 2000-year-old dance form Bharatanatyam, we have made it our focus to push the boundaries of this tradition to create performances that are relevant to the times.
Our professional productions not only borrow from the great Indian texts, mythology and folklore but we also boldly explore themes relevant to contemporary audiences based on narratives with universal, cross-cultural appeal.
Where pertinent, we embrace technology in our shows. And we actively seek collaborations across geographies and cultures, particularly within the Asian context. All part of our mission to make Bharatanatyam more accessible to a wider and more diverse audience.
While Singapore is truly home to Apsaras Dance Company, the world is quite literally our stage. Our productions have travelled to venues and prestigious festivals in some 40 countries, arguably making us one of the most travelled Singapore flag-bearers in the international arts scene.
Apsaras Dance Company is administered and managed by Apsaras Arts – a non-profit registered charity – and a recipient of the Singapore National Arts Council’s annual Major Grant scheme.
Aravinth has been Artistic Director of Apsaras Dance Company since 2005. This former corporate high-flyer gave up his career in banking IT to live and breathe his one true passion – Bharatanatyam. He has transformed the company formerly known as Apsaras Arts into a bona fide professional repertory dance company – now called Apsaras Dance Company. At the end of each successful production, three recurring questions haunt him –“What’s next? How can we raise the bar with our next show? What can we do to reach an even wider audience, while staying true to our roots?”
It is the search for answers to these questions that motivates him to continually innovate. This multi-talented artiste has delicately infused traditional Bharatanatyam with contemporary innovations in storytelling, blurred the lines between diverse cultural influences by weaving in Cambodian, Javanese, Balinese and Sri Lankan dance forms, and addressed real-world current affairs head on with daring productions. He has also redefined the purpose of the Bharatanatyam ensemble.
In doing so, he has earned an international reputation as one of the world’s leading innovators of Bharatanatyam, putting Apsaras Arts on the world cultural map.
For his contributions to the Arts, Aravinth has been recognised with Singapore’s “Young Artiste Award” by the National Arts Council of Singapore (1999), India’s prestigious “Arya Bhatta Award” (2016) the “Kala Ratna” award from Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (2019) and in 2022, the “Cultural Medallion”, Singapore’s highest national accolade for an individual’s contribution to the arts.
Aravinth is a member of the advisory board of the National Arts Council of Singapore, and the talent advisory board of the People’s Association of Singapore.
Artistic
Director
Associate
Creative Director
Principal
Apsaras Arts Academy
Vice Principal
Apsaras Arts Academy
Company Manager
Student Enrolment Officer
Production Manager
Apsaras Arts was founded in 1977 by alumni and former faculty of the esteemed Kalakshetra Foundation in India – Shri S. Sathaylingam (Music Director) and Srimathi Neela Sathyalingam (Artistic Director). Together, they embarked on a journey to promote classical Bharatanatyam to multicultural Singapore.
Each year, a growing number of students would receive the disciplined guidance needed to master Bharatanatyam from the Sathyalingams. Many of them would go on to become dancers and choreographers of high regard themselves.
Apsaras Arts productions would soon earn a reputation for artistic excellence and creativity, always pushing the boundaries to create shows of uncompromising quality and establishing itself as a respected Singapore arts institution.
