Choreographer: Jeevika Bhat
Performers: Keshav Agiwal, Shalini Basu, Jeevika Bhat, Bhavana Channavajjala, Preethi Chidambaram, Samanvita Kasthuri, Kavya Menon, Rutva Satish
Music: Nannoru Annoru – Raghavendra Beejadi; Taana Baana Thillana – Jay Parmesan; Balegara Chennaya – K.C. Ashwath, adapted by Sree Oggu, Sindhu Vasudevan; Cauvery Calling Song – Isha Foundation
Costumes: Jeevika Bhat

Jeevika Bhat is a Manhattan based dancer and choreographer who explores the confluence of her cultures through a Contemporary/Indian-American medium. Her background is in Odissi, an East Indian classical dance form known for its nuanced storytelling and graceful fluidity, which she studies under the guidance of Guru Jyoti Rout. Academically, she is a graduate of UC San Diego, where she earned a BS in Mathematics with minors in Linguistics and Dance, and UC Irvine, where she earned an MFA in Dance.

Choreographer: Tanveer Alam
Performer: Tanveer Alam
Musicians: Niha, Vihaan, Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed
Clapping ensemble: Shruti Sharma, Krithi Nathan, Mohit Agarwal, Shabnum Gulati, Shreoshe Sushil, Priesha Pujara, Nandita Dani, Shriya Dani
Costumes: Label Abrooh

Toronto-based Tanveer Alam started his Kathak training with Sudeshna Maulik and continued further nuanced studies with guru Sandhya Desai. Alam is a 2019 graduate of western contemporary dance from Dance Arts Institute of Canada (DAI). Tanveer has received further kathak training from Pandita Shama Bhate and Sanjukta Sinha. He is currently pursuing mentorships with Harikishan S. Nair and Dheerendra Tiwari.

Alam has performed in the works of Rina Singha, Lata Pada, Padmini Chettur, Harikishan S. Nair, Sashar Zarif, Brandy Leary, Lucy Rupert, and Peter Chin, to name a few. As an emerging choreographer, he has presented work at SummerWorks Festival, Battery Dance Festival +, Luminato Festival, and Tangente. As an emerging curator, he has supported programming initiatives with Dancemakers, TOES FOR DANCE, and Flemingdon Park Toronto Public Library. He was the co-curator for the Kathak & Ballet program at Fall For Dance North 2025, a leading international dance festival based in Canada.

Across the 25/26 season, Alam has performed at The New York Kathak Festival (New York), Fall For Dance North (Toronto), the Aga Khan Museum (Toronto), and Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (Mumbai) to name a few. Recently, he toured Singapore and India as part of Sampradaya Dance Creations’ new work Kintsugi, performed a solo at the prestigious 28th Vasantotsava Kathak Festival presented by Kalashram in New Delhi, India, and was featured as a dancer in the Toronto presentation of Abi Sampa and Rushil Ranjan’s Orchestral Qawwali Project. Tanveer was recently awarded the prestigious Eldred Family Protégé award by the Ontario Arts Foundation.

Choreographer: Mesma Belsaré
Performers: Mesma Belsaré and Ramya Shankaran
Music: T. Keshavan, Pandit Bhavani Shankar and Bejjanki Krishna.
Costumes: Mesma Belsaré

Mesma Belsaré works across choreography, painting, and theater as one project in multiple materials. For twenty-five years, she has pressed through classical training toward the pre-institutional memory the body carries beneath every layer of form. The audience is the site of transformation.

Her choreographic works include SIREN, The Hourglass, recently presented on a European tour, In the Creator’s Gaze, and Carmine Bees. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Asia Society, MFA Boston, the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and Siri Fort in New Delhi. Her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian, CBC Radio and The Dance Current. As a painter, her work is held in collections across six countries and has been exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum, Baruch College, and the Triveni Art Enclave, New Delhi.

She holds two fellowships across two disciplines: the Dance/USA Fellowship (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) and the Individual Artist Fellowship for Painting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts. She lives and works in the New York area.

Ramya Shankaran is a Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam artist, choreographer, and educator with over 27 years of experience in classical Indian dance. She is the founder and director of Adhyaathma LLC, NJ, a 2025 Mid Atlantic Arts Fellow, and recipient of the Bharat Gaurav Samman.

Choreographers: Aparna Sindhoor and Anil Natyaveda
Performers: Aparna Sindhoor and Anil Natyaveda
Music: Isaac Thomas Kottukapally
Costumes: Aparna Sindhoor and Anil Natyaveda

Dr. Aparna Sindhoor and Anil Natyaveda, directors of Sindhoor Natya – Navarasa create and perform dance-theater inspired by Bharatanatyam, Kalari, Mallakhamb acrobatics, and theater. They were artists in residence at Bates Dance Festival, East West Players, Asian Art Museum, Teesri Duniya, UCSB, Wellesley College, CT College. Choreography credits for films including Santhosh Sivan’s, Anandabadhram, S M Raju’s Varnam and have worked with Oscar winner Anthony Dod Mantle and Cirque du soleil famed Franco Dragone’. They were nominated for LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award. Aparna Sindhoor is trained in the Mysore style of Bharatanatyam for more than fifteen years with legendary Dr. K. Venkatalakshamma (Mysore palace dancer) and Dr. Lalitha Srinivasan. She is a recipient of CAC’s Individual Artist Fellowship, NPN creation award, Boston Dance Alliance and was nominated for Kerala Film choreography. Anil Natyaveda is a dancer and a leading exponent in martial arts Kalari ppayattu. He is a recipient of Alliance for California Traditional Arts, the Natyaratnam (Guru Gopinath Trust, India,) and Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. Sindhoor Natya’s “Dance for Everyone,” program offers free dance training for two hundred students in India and USA. They teach in California and online. “A magical mix of traditions and styles.” – Boston Globe.

Choreographer: Nadhi Thekkek
Performers: Shruti Abhishek, Abirami Murugappan, Janani Muthaiya, Nadhi Thekkek, and Lalli Venkat
Music: Music Direction by Roopa Mahadevan and Kalaisan Kalaichelvan; Recording by musicians Roopa Mahadevan, Aarti Shankar, Aditya Iswara, Conal Sathi, Matt Small and dancers Shruti Abhishek, Soundarya Daliparthy, and Nadhi Thekkek.
Costumes: Nikita Satish, Dori Design Studio, Bangalore; Aahaarya Tailor, Chennai; Nadhi Thekkek

Founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Nadhi Thekkek, Nava Dance Theatre (NDT) is a bharatanatyam dance company rooted in the South Indian form yet driven by a contemporary and justice-centered artistic practice. Its mission is to use Bharatanatyam as a medium to explore identity, place, and politics through the lens of lived experience. Through new works, residencies, workshops, and community programming, it create layered, socially engaged art that uplifts historically underrepresented stories and forges powerful intersections between culturally specific art, diaspora, and community care.