Sheila Rubin, Artistic Director

Birmingham, AL

Sheila Rubin, founder/director of Natyananda, studied and performed Bharatanatyam for twelve years in India. The Indian press gave her dance the highest praise as a member of the Bharata Kalanjali Dance Company. Her performances have taken her from the East to West coasts of the United States, and also to Europe, Central America, and the Bahamas. She has been acclaimed as a dancer whose artistic integrity and personal warmth of expression easily transcend all barriers. In 1987, she began to research and create new choreography, stretching the limits of this precise and well-developed art to clarify and communicate essential human truths. This work bore fruit in the production of dances and dance-dramas exploring inter-religious, moral, philosophical, ecological, and social themes. By creating new choreography with Spanish, Middle Eastern, African, Russian, Irish, and modern dance artists, she has explored and expressed artistically both commonalities and contrasts between cultures.