Dr. Souraja Tagore is a classical Bharatanatyam dancer having over 30 years of professional performance experience. Through her discipleship and years of rigorous training under her Guru, Shri Abhoy Pal, Souraja has mastered the nuances and subtleties of artistic expression and the crucially demanding necessities of creative and intuitive movements in Bharatanatyam performance practice. She is also trained in the 108 Karanas.
For several years, Souraja studied the works of her illustrious ancestor, Rabindranath Tagore, as part of her doctoral research dissertation. Immensely moved by his writings on literature, thought, and the artistic traditions of India, she has aimed to integrate Tagore’s unique approach to dance within her training in a classical repertoire, thus reimagining Tagore Dance (Rabindra Nritya) for a contemporary audience.
An empanelled artiste of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC), the Sangeet Natak Academi (SNA), and the West Bengal Dance Group Federation (WBDGF), Souraja has studied and explored how dance forms have evolved and are relevant in present times. She has been an associate artist in several traditional and experimental collaborations. She participates in and conducts dance workshops, dance appreciation courses, and lecture demonstrations for learners and art enthusiasts. Souraja is an external examiner for Calcutta University (English honours theory papers) and Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (MA dance, practical papers). At present Souraja is the artistic director of the Bharatanatyam dance institute 'Koothambalam', founded by Guru Abhoy Pal.
While working on her MPhil and Ph.D. dissertations, she had the opportunity to study and perform Tagore dance where her endeavor had been to incorporate the same into her artistic repertoire. Souraja​ ​enjoys learning, exploring, and sharing her artistic knowledge with artists and young learners. Her area of special interest includes literature and art analysis through which she attempts​ to produce and work on creative and experimental projects offering scope for her to explore ways by which dance, literature, and drama can intersect within other spaces of art and communication.