Shree School of Dance

Congratulations Vibha Bhaskar on a wonderful performance at the DiverCity Festival in Lexington!!

At last.. here are some photos from Prathika Sakthivel's arangetram on August 5, 2023.

Prathika's passion, artistry, performance abilities, skill, talent, and her love for Barathanatyam, all, shone brightly on stage. It is not an exaggeration to say that she had the audience completely wrapped up in the performance.

It was mesmerizing to see her transform from a student presenting her arangetram, to a performer who owned her artistic expression.

In stating her vision for her arangetram, Prathika said that she wanted to present a performance where every audience member took something back with them. The tears, the smiles, the gasps, from the audience, as we traversed the repertoire, was proof that she did accomplish that, and more.

Prathika also wanted to integrate issues of social justice and feminism in her dance. We re-imagined her varnam, a piece on Divine Feminine, to include current day realities. We broke tradition and inserted spoken words before the traditional 'sancharis' ( where situations/expressions/stories are played out through expressive story telling).

We were pleasantly surprised by the standing ovation for varnam, especially since it was 45 mins long. Not a single person moved from their seats.

At the end of the varnam, Pustakam Ramaa ji, our singer in the orchestra, leaned over to me and said ' It felt like the Goddess was seated next to me as I sang, this was so powerful for me'.

Ramaa ji's words sums up the entire experience for me.

Prathika's arangetram was my last student's arangetram. And my heart is full of gratitude for all the students who I have had the pleasure of working with.

Inviting you all to Prathika Sakthivel's Bharatanatyam Arangetram, on August 5th, Garland TX.

Our students Vasundhara Bhaskar and Vibha Bhaskar gave an amazing performance at the Future of Fashion Lex KY event.
Kudos to this mom daughter duo.

We had an amazing program.

We are back performing...

Recently Krupa Hegde presented a short zoom performance for her friends and family.
It is such a delight to watch Krupa own her dance more and and create her own stamp on how she interprets the choreographies. It's a joy to see her grow as a dancer.
Here are some photos from that performance.
Well done Krupa ❤️❤️

My student Hena Kachroo and I were awarded the Folk and Traditional Apprenticeship grant by the Kentucky Arts Council .
We spent the year working on abhinaya and related skill sets.
This performance was the culmination of the year long work we did.
Hena tied in her performance of Ardhanareeshwara with gender identity and related issues. She wrote a poem as part of her reflection process.
It was an intimate group by design, and it was very heartwarming on on so many levels.
Hena, you made me proud.

Oh, and to have the performance with my paintings as the backdrop was extra special.

One more dance performance by our students, a mother-daughter duo Aardra Kachroo and Hena Kachroo.
A proud teacher moment, can you tell?

ShankaraSriGiri