Mandalam Performing Arts

Radha Carman began training in Bharata Natyam, a south Indian dance style, in Los Angeles in 1978. In 1989, she studied Kathakali, Kerala theater, first in L.A. with Jan Zeitlin and later in India with FACT Padmanabhan.

While in India, she also studied Mohini Attam, Kerala's classical dance, at the institute of the renowned Mohini Attam artist Kalyanikutti Amma. Over the years, she has concentrated more and more on this style, developing her own unique compositions, which she has presented to audiences in Kerala, the U.S. and Mexico.

In 1995, she became director of the Kerala Dance Theatre, a non-profit performing arts organization. Radha directed and coordinated four U.S. and Mexico tours in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 with artists from U.S. and India. Some of the productions include Ballads of Northern Malabar, a mixture of Indian martial arts and dance in a dramatic context, The Story of Nala and Damayanti, an operatic dance drama based on the Marathi and Malayalam poetic compositions of Raghunath Pandit and Unnayi Warrier, and Divine Manifestations, which explores the religious history of India through dance and music: the ancient Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu traditions that exist in India. In 2005, she brought the epic poem by Tulsidas, Hanuman Chalisa, to life on stage with a troupe of 50 dancers and musicians. Radha directed the dance theater production, Maya, A Tale of Love and Sorcery in 2006 which performed at the Uttarkhand Theater Festival in India.

She was instrumental in directing a full-scale production of the Ramayana in Kathakali theater in 1998. In 1997, 2002 and 2003, Radha received grants from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department to give long-term residencies at schools and communities in Los Angeles. As a culmination of the 1997 grant, high school students performed the theater work, Nala and Damayanti. The 2002 grant culminated in a theater production, A Parade of Ants, combining elements of stylized and realistic theater.