Born and brought up in South India, Samyuktha Viola Viswanathan is an actor, dancer and writer. A ballet dancer since the age of seven, she believes that performance and art is the most liberating way of expression; that performance provokes and art moves. After an injury restricted her from pursuing dance professionally, she chose to study ‘Visual Communication’ while also immersing herself in theatre. She worked with ‘The Little Theatre’, a leading not-for-profit theatre company in India, for three years before moving to New York to follow her dream of delving into performance in theory and practice.

Samyuktha uses performance art pieces imbibing her poetry, in the hope of helping bring about change that is necessary and urgent. She is interested in the ‘grey areas’ of ethics, morality and the like, reading into counterproductive ‘social conventions and norms’; why it exists and how to fight it – especially in the society she is from. She enjoys watching films and television & reading books, she regards them as therapy, knowledge and if used right, are harbingers of change.

Favorite quote (one of): “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” – Carl Jung

Why PS @ NYU?

With a variety of interests and multiple areas that I would love to delve into, finding the right foundation and focus was extremely challenging. I needed something to put form to my thoughts, ideas and perspectives. I wanted to know performance - every bit of it, in everything that it could be. Besides, as a young girl in a developing country on the other side of the world, the dream of studying in New York at Tisch was a real dream. And when these come together, why would I not choose this?

PS. What is form, really? (pun intended)