Vibha Ramaswami

🪔 About

Vibha Ramaswami is a prominent Kathak dancer, teacher, and the founder of KathaKonnect Dance Academy, based in Bangalore, India. Born in Uttar Pradesh, she developed an early interest in Kathak at the age of eight, though her family initially discouraged it due to societal perceptions of the dance form at the time. Her family later moved to Mysore when she was thirteen, where her parents' views on Kathak softened. During her engineering studies at SJC College of Engineering, she formally began her Kathak training, learning for two years under Tapti Sinha. After completing her education, Ramaswami pursued a successful career as a Software Application Architect in the IT industry for approximately two decades. However, her passion for Kathak eventually led her to leave the corporate world to dedicate herself fully to dance. She further honed her skills, training under Ila Mehta and later finding her grounding under Murari Sharan Gupt, a disciple of the legendary Birju Maharaj. In 2011, Vibha Ramaswami founded KathaKonnect Dance Academy in Bangalore, with the vision of popularizing Kathak and making it accessible to a wider audience. She is known for teaching the Lucknow Gharana style of Kathak and passionately instructs students ranging from five to over sixty-five years old, including specialized classes for senior citizens. Ramaswami also performs occasionally and has traveled internationally with renowned Kathak dancers like Hari and Chetana. She is a Senior Fellowship awardee of the CCRT (Centre for Cultural Resources and Training), an autonomous organization under the Indian Ministry of Culture. Through KathaKonnect, she organizes an annual Kathak festival, "Connecting with Kathak," which serves as a platform for her students to showcase their talents and for the community to engage with the art form. Awards & Honours: Senior Fellowship.