Ananda Shankar Jayant is an Indian classical dancer, choreographer, scholar and bureaucrat, known for her proficiency in the classical dance forms of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. She is the first woman officer in the Indian Railway Traffic Service on South Central Railway and her 2009 TED talk is ranked among the top twelve Incredible TED talks on cancer. She is a recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Kalaimamani Award of the Government of Tamil Nadu and Kala Ratna Award of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for her contributions to arts.

In June 2008, after returning from a Kuchipudi Conference in the US, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which was subsequently treated. In November 2009, she was invited to share her experiences on TED talk and she delivered a speech, incorporating dance moves in between, which has since been rated as one of the twelve Incredible TED talks on cancer. The Huffington Post ranked her talk as one of the five greatest TED talks by Indians. She resumed her dancing career after her cancer days which lasted two years. Under the aegis of her dance academy, she composed many dance ensembles like What About Me? (1999) and the subsequent Dancing Tales – Panchatantra, based on the ancient Indian fables of the same name and performed on many stages including in Cambodia. Buddham Saranam Gachchami, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Sri Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Buddham Saranam Gachchami, Expressions of Truth (on Gandhian ideals), An Easel Called Life, Navarasa – Expressions of Life, Darshanam – An Ode to the Eye, Kavyanjali and Tales from the Bull and the Tiger (2019) are some of the dance productions choreographed by her. She also continued her motivational talks and was one of the speakers of the Inspire series at the India Conference at Harvard held at Harvard Business School in February 2016 as well as at Columbia College Chicago and at Oberlin College, Ohio. She guest-edited the 16th edition of Attendance-The Dance Annual Magazine of India, and has released a desktop app for practicing dance.