Ramya S. Kapadia (Founder & Artistic Director of Natyarpana School of Dance & Music) is fast making a name for herself as  Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, instructor and a Carnatic vocalist (South Indian classical dance & music forms). She received initial training in Bharatanatyam from Smt. Santha Gopinath of Kalakshetra and later from Smt. Kripa Baskaran, Brookfield, WI. Her vocal training began under her mother Smt. Gayathri Sundaresan, advanced by Late Guru V. Vamanan, Mumbai, India. Ramya has toured all over the United States & abroad to present solo & group works. She regularly provides vocal accompaniment to dancers around the world and composes music for their productions. During her undergraduate years in Mumbai, Ramya was a lead singer in a number of Indo-Jazz bands. She has lent her voice to Indian commercials and movies – “Kaho na Pyar Hai” & the Tamil-Telugu bilingual movie “180”. Ramya has Master’s degrees in Medical Physics and Neuroscience but pursues the arts full time now. She runs the Natyarpana School of Dance & Music in Durham, NC, through which she shares the rich traditions of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam with the youth of the Triangle Area. She received the Ella Pratt Emerging Artist Award from the Durham Arts Council in 2010 and the Choreography Fellowship from the North Carolina Dance Alliance in 2016. Ramya believes that art can and should tell stories that move audiences to becoming better and more compassionate human beings. The collaborators in her works are artists, scientists, literary scholars and philosophers who all share her vision of creating a better world through art. She is grateful to her many mentors for providing her with rich and varied experiences in the arts.