Who We Are

secretarial work and teaching of the younger students. When she graduated from secondary school at the age of sixteen in 1995, she started teaching at Padma Inc. full-time. Campakalata has taken many professional teacher training seminars, workshops and college courses to increase her academic knowledge and teaching skills. She married
                   Mayapurcandra das in 1997 and received the name
                          Campakalata when she took initiation from
                                        Bir Krsna Swami in 1998.
 

We are a 501c3 religious non-profit corporation, established in 1991. Our board has three members and two advisors, and sometimes forms temporary committees that can be composed of either or both board and non-board members.

Campakalata (Yamuna) Fiorentino
is the director of the Padma, Inc. Cultural Mission, which includes Padma Dance Academy.

Born Yamuna devi dasi in 1978 to Urmila devi dasi and Pratyatosa dasa, she lived with a pre-school or gurukula literally in her home from the time she was two years old. When she was eleven or twelve she began to regularly help with
 

Campakalata is often invited to temples, schools, universities, and cultural and social events both to perform traditional spiritual dance and to teach the meaning, role, and effect of aesthetic discipline in developing love for the Supreme Lord. She and her students perform about fifteen times a year, and meet at least weekly for training, research, development, and practice.
She completed her Arangetram in Bharata Natyam at
Duke University in August, 2002, which certified her as a Bharata
Natyam dance teacher under the umbrella of Hindu Temple Rhythms. Her dance gurus are Sudha Candrashekhar and Geetha Murali
coming in line from the famous dance maestros, Govindaraj
Pillai, Kuppiah Pillai, Mahalingam Pillai, and K.
Kalyanasundaram of the dance school, Sri
Rajarajeswari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir,
in Mumbai, India.