19 Facts About Lata Pada

Lata Pada, CM was born on 7 November 1947 and is an Indian-born Canadian choreographer and Bharatanatyam dancer.

Lata Pada is the founder and director of Sampradaya Dance Academy, a leading professional dance training institution that is the only Indian dance school in North America affiliated with the prestigious, UK-based Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing.

Lata Pada founded the dance company in 1990; Lata Pada said that she founded the company because she wanted to showcase Bharatantyam dance as an art form throughout the world.

Lata Pada is known as an influential figure in Indian style dance in Canada.

Lata Pada's father was an electrical engineer in the Royal Navy, and her mother eventually had a career in insurance management.

Lata Pada gave up her studies in science to pursue Indian dance, when her first husband, Vishnu Pada, took her to Thompson, Manitoba, where he was working for Inco, she was able to combine her domestic duties with a social life and her artistic vocation.

Lata Pada, who attended Elphinstone College in Mumbai, trained under the gurus Kalaimamani Kalyanasundaram and Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan.

Lata Pada married geologist Vishnu Lata Pada, on 30 October 1964, when she was 17 years old.

Lata and her husband, Vishnu Pada moved first to Indonesia before settling in Sudbury, Ontario, nearly 40 years ago.

Lata Pada devoted her life in looking after her husband, two daughters, and teaching dance.

Lata Pada was visiting India almost every year to train with her dance guru.

At the tender age 13, Lata Pada gave her solo debut recital known as the 'Arangetram'.

However, when she lived in Indonesia for several years, Lata Pada became interested in cross-cultural collaboration and opened up her choreography to other influences.

In 1990, Lata Pada founded Sampradaya Dance Creations in Toronto, Ontario, and Sampradaya Dance Academy in nearby Mississauga.

Lata Pada was not aboard since she left on an earlier date to tour India for Bharatanatyam recitals in Bangalore and across India; Lata was in Mumbai rehearsing for her tour, while her husband and daughters stayed behind in Sudbury, Ontario because Brinda was graduating from high school; afterwards the three flew on Air India 182.

Lata Pada became a spokesperson for the families of the victims.

Lata Pada expressed disappointment in the Canadian government's investigation of the Air India incident.

Lata Pada received a master's degree in fine arts from York University in 1997.

In September 2000, Lata Pada remarried Hari Venkatacharya who was later arrested for fraud in 2013.