Sunanda Nair is an Indian dancer trained in Mohiniattam. She did her master's degree in this dance form from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya affiliated to the University of Mumbai. She has completed her PhD from University of Mumbai for her thesis "Intrinsic Lyrical Feminism in Mohiniattam" . She was born in Mumbai, India.[1]
Nair is a disciple of noted Mohiniattam exponent Kanak Rele, credited for the revival and popularisation of this classical Kerala dance style.
Nair was the first student to earn a master's degree in Mohiniattam. She was a student of Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalay at the University of Mumbai where she completed her Master's. She completed a seven-year course in five years. The institution is the closest to the guru Kula Sampradaya.
After graduating, she joined the staff at Nalanda and was a lecturer at her alma mater for nine years until 1999. She passed her Net exam, a UGC requirement to continue teaching at Nalanda.
She has given many performances.
She studied from masters like Kalaimamani Kadirvelu, Kalaimamani Mahalingam Pillai, T.V.Sounderajan, Dipak Majumdar, and Tejiswini Rao in Kattumanar Muthukumar Pillai's bani.
In 1980, while in high school, she started the Srutilaya Institute of Fine Arts which trains students in both Mohiniattam and Bharatanatyam.
SPARC is now in its 10th year of operation in the US. At SPARC, the rich tradition of Indian Classical Dance is passed to new dancers.[citation needed]