Bengaluru: Padma Bhushan recepient and renowned classical dance maestro Vannadil Pudiyaveettil Dhananjayan known as V P Dhananjayan, will be conferred with Alva’s Virasat Award 2017.

The award will be presented at the annual Alva’s Virasat cultural festival on January 13 at Shrimathi Vanajakshi K Sripathi Bhat open auditorium.

The event will be inaugurated by Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala Dr.Veerendra Heggade and Nitte group institutions Chairman Dr. Vinay Hegde will preside over.

The award carries prize money of Rs 1 Lakh and a commendation certificate.

Brief profile of V P Dhananjayan

V P Dhananjayan was born into a Malayali Poduval family on 17 April 1939 in Payyanur, Kannur District in Kerala. He was born into a family with eight children.

Were it not for providence in the form of Guru Chandu Panicker, Dhananjayan would have been working in some monotonous job in Kerala. Dhananjayan received a scholarship at Kalakshetra to study Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Mridangam and music.

Dhananjayan and wife Shantha (Dhananjayans) left Kalakshetra in the late 1960s to build a career on their own.

The Dhananjayans place particular emphasis on imparting Indian tradition and culture to their Bharatanatyam students abroad.

Dhananjayans started their own dance school Bharata Kalanjali in 1968 in Adyar, Chennai. It began with a handful of students and is today a premiere academy of dance and music with several hundreds of students.

Some of the major awards conferred on the Dhananjayans include Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2009, followed by a doctorate from the University of Vales.