Steps came to Neeraja very naturally. The little girl in her was already an aspirant and took to learning classical dance very early. She made her debut as a girl of seven, and dancing has been an ever-growing passion with her.
The first nine years of her training was under Mrs. Jayashree Narayanan of Pondicherry. She then Joined Kalakshetra Foundation as a full time trainee and graduated in the art in 1992.
Thus began her career as a dancer. She was a lecturer in her field of study for five years at the university affiliated Institute ‘Bharathiyar Palkalai Koodam’ in Pondicherry, and that got her many opportunity of performing in and around the state and also in other states representing Pondicherry State.
It was at Bhavan’s Gandhi Vidyashram in Kodaikanal, that Neeraja, the performing artist, found herself zealously exploring the classical dance system in all its variety of style and expression, both as an experimenter and innovator, keeping up all the while the traditional and integrity of the genre. It was in recognition of her work she did here, she was invited to perform abroad.
Her hard work, creativity and her skills as a performer was very well recognized and appreciated in ‘Basker’s Arts Academy’ – Singapore, where she rendered her service as a teacher and as performing artist for five years.
Mention must be made of the guidance and training she received from noted artistes as Mrs.Krishnaveni Lakshmanan, Mr.Balagopalan, Mr. Janardanan and all the other gurus at Kalakshetra who have made her what she is and what she means today as a performer and teacher.
Of course the first gurus of her life have been her parents. Neeraja has been fortunate in having had such an ideal parents as A.Nagarajan a painter father, and Krishangini a writer – mother, equally affectionately – disposed. Her inspiration and aspiration from her childhood to peruse dance and achieve to a great degree in it, had been her aunt late Mrs.Krishanveni Lakshmanan who was a very well acclaimed and renowned performer and teacher of Kalakshetra.
Neeraja have worked on the modern Tamil Poems expressing women’s issues and social issues, bringing them into the language of Bharatanatyam since 1994. Her creative choreographies and performances were well received both by the press and the public, and won the praise of other senior artistes, poets and dance critics.
Presently Neeraja Ramani is living in Toronto, Canada where she is performing and running an art school ‘Kalavriksha’.