Shantona Bag

Shantona Bag (born 25 January 1985) is an Australian qualified medical practitioner and an internationally performing classical dancer often touted as the ‘dancing doctor’.
Bag is classically trained in the Indian dance forms Odissi and Bharata Natyam. Since the age of seven, she has been under the tutelage of artistic director Ramli Ibrahim at the Sutra Dance Theatre in Malaysia.
In 2007 she completed her solo Bharata Natyam Arangetram, a graduation ceremony amongst dancers, titled ‘Storming Destiny’. For this she received a 2007 nomination for the Kakiseni Arts Award.
As a dancer she has performed internationally throughout India, Malaysia, Australia, Estonia and Finland.
Amidst this dancing career, Shantona completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree at the University of New South Wales Australia in 2009, and is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in Australia. She is currently undertaking further specialist training in palliative care. 
Other accolades include nominations for the Malaysian Cleo Young Achievers Award 2008.
Her most recent performances include a work entitled 'Eternally Shiva' at the Kapaleeswarar temple, Chennai, with fellow Sutra dancer, Revathi Tamilselvam, in 2014, and 'Awakened', a Bharata Natyam revival at Amphi-Sutra, Kuala Lumpur in July 2017, alongside her Guru, Ramli Ibrahim, and fellow Sutra dancers. 