About
Sonal Mansingh, born 30 April 1944 in Mumbai, is one of India's most eminent classical dancers and gurus, celebrated in both Odissi and Bharatanatyam. She trained in Bharatanatyam in the Pandanallur and Tanjore traditions and in Odissi under the legendary Kelucharan Mohapatra, giving her arangetram in 1962. She received the Padma Bhushan in 1992, as its youngest recipient at the time, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2003.
In 1977 Mansingh founded the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in New Delhi, and over the decades she used dance to address themes of womanhood, social justice and the environment. Her life and work are the subject of Prakash Jha's National Award-winning documentary Sonal. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2018 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. She remains active, relaunching her production A Zigzag Mind in 2025 and performing at major cultural events.
The artistry
Mansingh dances with a commanding stage presence and deep expressive range across Odissi and Bharatanatyam, using the classical vocabulary to carry contemporary and philosophical themes. She is as much a choreographer and thinker as a performer.
Sonal Mansingh connects on the Culture Atlas graph to the Bharatanatyam and Odissi artform profiles (her two primary dance forms), to the Delhi destination profile (Centre for Indian Classical Dances), and to the Sangeet Natak Akademi institution profile. Her teacher-student relationship with Kelucharan Mohapatra places her within the most significant lineage of the Odissi revival.
Sonal Mansingh's contribution to Indian classical dance encompasses performance, pedagogy, scholarship and advocacy over five decades. Her ability to articulate the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of classical dance in public discourse has been as significant as her performance career in sustaining the tradition's cultural standing.