Lifetime achievement award for Sonal Mansingh

​Visakhapatnam: Well known dancer and Padma Visbhushan awardee Sonal Mansingh would be conferred with the Vysakhi Lifetime Achievement award on the inaugural day of 9th All India Classical Dance Festival beginning on September 22.

She is the only representative from the performing arts, who has been selected as one of the Navaratnas for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan by the Government of India.

BR Vikram Kumar (Bathina Vikram Goud), founder president of Nataraj Music and Dance Academy said on Wednesday that Dr Sonal Mansingh was acknowledged as a master of cultural interpretations and an exemplary teacher, who explains inter-linkages with philosophy, literature, sculpture and mythological parables through lectures and dance.

She is a great scholar and seasoned art administrator who has performed, given lectures and conducted workshops in 90 countries of the world. Sonal Mansingh is a unique dancer, who mastered multiple Indian classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Chhau.

Her concern for issues like, ecological imbalance, environmental protection, empowerment of women and social justice especially for weaker sections of society led to the creation of numerous path-breaking dance ballets.

As a founder-president of Centre for Indian Classical Dances (1977), she has trained several talented performers, who are carrying the message of Indian culture all over the world. This would be Sonal Mansingh’s first-ever performance in Visakhapatnam.