Pallavi Krishnan is one of the few most favourite Mohiniyattam dancers of the country with extensive performance credit. She is also known for her tremendous efforts to promote and preserve this style of Indian classical dance as a tradition. She is the only Indian dancer who is an alumnus of both Santiniketan (Viswa Bharati University) and Kerala Kalamandalam.

Pallavi gave an enthralling Mohiniyattam performance at Kalakunj Auditorium, Kolkata, under the aegis of Nritanjali Foundation of Kolkata, on the evening of Sept.15, 2003. Marked by grace and poetry in motion, every point Pallavi looked like a real Mohini, the enchantress, in her performance of Mohiniyattam, better known in abroad as the dance of the enchantress.

The recital began with Mukhachalam, set to Suruti raga and Talamalika, a pure dance item in which the nritta aspects of Mohiniyattam are highlighted. The graceful lasya movements are aesthetically woven in this item, with which Pallavi made a striking beginning. The main item of the day was Maya Mohana Krishna, her recent choreography, which describes the divine powers of Lord Krishna, with four celebrated episodes adapted from the Mahabhagavatha and Mahabharata. Draupati Vastrapaharana, Gajendra Moksha, the story of Prahlada and the instance of the advice of Bhagavat Geeta are the episodes that Pallavi incorporated in this piece, composed in Ragas Mohanam, Kanada, Kedaragoula, Neelambari and Lavangi and Talas Ayyadi, Panchari, Adi, Chemba and Khanda chapu. Pallavi is superb in exhibiting her skills in uncommon and ethnic talas of the land of her art form, Kerala.

Pallavi, a Bengali married to a Malayalee (thus the title Krishnan and often misunderstood as a Malayalee with her fluency in Malayalam language) and settled in both Kerala and Kolkata having dance institution in both centres, captured the even the laymen audience with her superb rendering of Omanathinkal kidavo, the immortal lullaby of the celebrated Kerala poet Irayimman Thampi, who is believed to have been inspired by the infant Maharaj Swati Thirunal and dedicated this lullaby to him, in the raga Navaresa and set to Misra chapu tala. The way the dancer gradually disappeared from the stage after putting the child asleep speaks in volume of her talents in minute histrionics and audience psychology.

She concluded the recital with Panthattam, the ball game based on a composition of Kerala poet laureate Vallathol, who founded the Kerala Kalamandalam. In this item that is in the raga Kamboji and set to Adi talam, the vicissitudes of human life are symbolically compared to the movements of a ball.