Artistic Director | Choreographer | Co-Founder
As an Artistic Director of the company since 2012, Nadhi’s work through Nava has been supported by CounterPulse Performing Diaspora, CA$H Grants, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Dancers' Group, East Bay Community Fund and others. Her recent freelance work include performances and collaborations with Randee Paufve (Oakland), Seeta Patel (London), Graham Lustig (Oakland) and Sujit Vaidya (Vancouver.). Nadhi received her foundational training from Guru Smt. Sundara Swaminathan at Kala Vandana Dance Company in San Jose. In 2006, she had the opportunity to join Nritya School of Dance in Houston, under Guru Smt. Padmini Chari. In 2012, she started training under Guru Sri. A. Lakshmanaswamy (Nrityalakshana, Chennai.) She returns to Chennai each year to perform in the Annual Music and Dance Festival.
Shruti Abhishek
Company Dancer | Manager | Rehearsal Director
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Shruti is a Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher. She is the founder and artistic director of Kshetram - a holistic dance institution based in Pleasanton and Livermore, California. Shruti has a bachelor's degree in Performing Arts from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya, Mumbai, India. She trains with Guru Shri Vaibhav Arekar in Mumbai, India. Her formative years were spent learning dance with Guru Smt. Rohini M Singhi in Mumbai. Shruti had the opportunity to perform at several prestigious festivals in India and Europe with Vaibhav Arekar’s Sankhya Dance Company and in the US with Nava Dance Theatre. While working on other creative collaborations, Shruti co-curates two festivals: ‘Varnam Salon’ which is a series of performances by California-based artists and ‘When Eyes Speak’ the first Indian choreography festival in San Francisco. Shruti has been a part of Nava Dance Theatre since 2016.
Lalli Venkat
Company Dancer
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Lalli has studied bharatanatyam under Smt. Jayanthi Sridhar, disciple of Guru Adyar K. Lakshman. She has performed at various venues across the U.S. She has been performing with Nava Dance since 2016.
Priyanka Raghuraman
Company Dancer
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Priyanka Raghuraman is a senior performer & faculty member of Anitha Guha's Bharathanjali and a company dancer at Nava Dance Theatre, SF. She currently teaches in the Bay Area - USA through her teaching practice 'Priyada Arts'. She started learning Bharatanatyam from her mother, Smt. Kamala Raghuraman at the age of 4 and later came under the tutelage of Guru Kalaimamani Smt. Anitha Guha. As a professional soloist and graded artist with Doordarshan(India), she has toured and performed at prestigious venues across the country, the USA, and Singapore.
Aishwarya Subramanian
Company Dancer
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Aishwarya is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Bay Area. Having trained in Bharatanatyam at the Jayamangala School of Music and Dance under her mother-guru Shobha Subramanian, she has participated in dance workshops with gurus, such as Maneesha Sathe, Narendra and Anusha Kumar, The Dhananjayans, Priyadarshini Govind, Late M.V. Narasimhachari, The Kirans, M. Venkata Krishnan, Divya Nayar, and N. Srikanth. As Artistic Director of Jayamangala, she has taught, performed, and presented Bharatanatyam at various events, festivals, and conferences around the world. In addition to her artistic pursuits, Aishwarya is a practicing expressive arts therapist and has been with Nava Dance Theatre since 2018.
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Shelley studied at the Shakti School of Bharata Natyam under Smt. Viji Prakash and performed her dance debut in 2010. She has performed across the country with Shakti Dance Company and has been dancing with Nava Dance Theatre since 2018.
Sanjana Melkote
Company Dancer
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Sanjana has been learning Bharatanatyam for the last 15 years from her guru Smt. Suganda Iyer and continues to learn at the Upadhye School of Dance. She is a dancer at Nava Dance Theater and senior captain for her nationally ranked collegiate Bharatanatyam team, Natya at Berkeley. She is passionate about choreography and co-founded Fuchsia Dance, a platform for dancers to collaborate, innovate, and share Bharatanatyam with broader audiences. She is a fourth year student studying Computer Science and Journalism at UC Berkeley and also learns Carnatic Vocal from Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan.
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Janani began her Bharatanatyam tutelage with Guru Viji Prakash and the Shakti School of Bharatanatyam at the age of 11 and has performed with the Shakti Dance Company in many events and festivals around the world. She’s also choreographed group performances for various venues including the Davis Dheem Tana Showcase and the Festival of Chariots. She joined Nava Dance Theatre in 2019.
Aarthi Ramesh
Company Dancer
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Aarthi began learning bharatnatyam in Muscat with Smt. Padmini Krishnamurthy and did her arangetram with Smt. Revathi Ramachandran when she moved to India. She continued to learn and perform in productions with Smt. Srekala Bharath while in India and with Smt. Hema Rajagopalan after moving to US. She joined Nava in 2023.
Abirami Murugappan
Company Dancer
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Abirami Murugappan has been learning at the Sankalpa School of Dance under Nirupama Vaidyanathan since the age of 5, and performed her arangetram in 2012. Since then, she’s been part of several Sankalpa productions. She was also part of Natya at UC Berkeley, a collegiate Bharathanatyam team, had the chance to compete nationally with them.