Chitra Krishnamurti is a well accomplished scientist by profession. Besides her scientific profession, Chitra Krishnamurti also possess another identity of her personality. She has been regarded as one of the eminent Odissi dance performer. Chitra Krishnamurti runs a school of Odissi dance in the Washington DC metropolitan area namely Nrityalaya. She serves there as the artistic director.
Chitra Krishnamurti has been exposed to the world of Odissi dance by the maestros of this traditional art form, the Late Padmashri Sanjukta Panigrahi and Padma Bhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra. The knowledge that she aquired from her gurus eventually incorporated into her performances and choreographies. Through her life she has composed several master pieces and directed uncountable number of shows. Her performance and choreographic works have been well acclaimed by the audiences. "Gita Govindam", "Dasavatar", "Sudama Charitram", "Karna", "Devi", "Mahatma Gandhi" etc are the few dance dramas choreographed and organized by Chitra Krishnamurthi.
Apart from that Chitra Krishnamurti has also been credited for her solo performances on the entire range of Odissi dance. Chitra Krishnamurti has performed extensively in the USA and in India. She has also been invited to exhibit solo performances at highly esteemed occassions. Chitra Krishnamurti has been invited to perform at Music Academy in Chennai, New Delhi, India and Japan. Through all these performance she has been showered with great acclamation. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC invited her to exhibit Odissi dance at the time of two of their occassions. One is in the year 1996 and another is in the year 1999 where she performed "Puja" and "Devi" respectively. Media has covered her performances and gave a rave review.
Beside being an eminent Odissi dancer, Chitra Krishnamurti has also played her role as a mother. She is serving as the Deputy Director of a Minority Health Affairs Office at NIH. Chitra is endlessly working for the benefit of the people of the underrepresented community.
`Nrityalaya` is considered to be the first Odissi dance school in the USA, which bagged the honor to organize the graduation. Graduation means 2 hours solo performance. In the year 1994, the senior students of Nrityalaya exhibited grduation, "Ranga Pravesh" or "Mancha Pravesh". From the school more or less a dozen of girls under her valuable guidance have graduated so far. Chitra Krishnamurti as a teacher has also composed several significant pieces for her students in and around India and USA. This outstanding personality is very well versed in the traditional classical and folk art forms of India.
Chitra Krishnanmurthi has been acknowledged in many ways for her astonishing talent. Montgomery County, MD has felicitated her with awards. Apart from executing dance for professional purpose, she has also conducted innumerable shows to raise funds. To mention one of the most significant charitable conducts by her in this regard is the foundation of the "Sanjukta Panigrahi Award" in memory of her late guru. For this award each year a dancer is being nominated and she or he was conferred the money to enrich dance skills further. In the month of December 2002, the second "Sanjukta Panigrahi Award" was presented to a highly talented dancer and to ornament the occasion Chitra Murlikrishnamuthi was present there. She has been felicitated by many noted Odissi guru on her visit to Orissa, which is a esteemed honor indeed.
