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Monday 5pm - 8pm Tuesday 4pm - 8:30pm Saturday 9:30am - 3pm

Natya Leela, 810 SE Belmont, Studio 1, Portland, OR (2026)

10/01/2022

After a long break, I am forming new classes for kids again! If you know anyone with 5 - 7 year olds who might be interested in exploring a journey in Bharatanatyam contact me.
8-week Bharatanatyam Classes for 5 - 7 year olds start next Saturday (October 8th)
SCHEDULE: Saturdays - 10:30am - 11:30am.
Session Start and End dates - October 8th - December 7th
No classes - November 5th and November 26th
DESCRIPTION - Beginner Bharatanatyam - Students will begin by learning exercises that strengthen muscles and help build stamina for this athletic dance form. This will be followed by basic adavus (rhythmic footwork patterns), modified jathis (combination of adavus to create longer series of movements), and mudras (hand gestures). Through music, songs, and poetry, students will discover their dancing bodies.

WHERE: 810 SE Belmont, Studio 1, Portland, OR 97214
COST: $160 (Due by the first day of classes.)

CONTACT: Subashini Ganesan-Forbes. Please contact me to confirm that you would like to have your child attend the 8-week session, for more information, and payment details.

09/09/2020

BACKGROUND:- Since Fall 2020 will continue to present most of us with extended screen time, Natya Leela Artistic Director, Ganesan, thought it might be helpful to share a few eye exercises that many Classical Indian Dancers use in their daily practice & in performances.

Suba decided to be as casual as possible, so you know it doesn't take much preparation. Basically, sit comfortably, with your spine straight and your feet planted on the ground. Keep your chin parallel to the ground (not leaning forward) and open your eyes as wide as possible, throughout the entire session. Do not move your eyeballs too fast. Start slow… The aim here is to move your eyeballs independently of your neck muscles and that takes time. Sometimes it helps to video-tape yourself doing this OR have someone watch you because it is hard at the beginning to instinctively feel when we are connecting neck muscle movement with our eyes.

ABOUT THE VIDEO:- There are NO VOCAL instructions in the video. Four eyeball movements are shown. For each movement, Suba demonstrates the direction first and then follows that up with 4 repetitions. Below are the four directions shown in the video:-
First movement – Downward Half Circles
Second movement – Upward Half Circles
Third movement – Full Circle (one direction)
Fourth movement – Full Circle (the other direction)

NOTE:- On Monday we posted 4 linear eyeball movements for practice. See the post below... Combine them with these exercises to keep your eyes healthy and safe, along with all the other health precautions you are taking. AND do comment with comments/questions if you have any.

09/07/2020

Fall 2020 will continue to present most of us with extended computer screen time... So Natya Leela Artistic Director, Subashini Ganesan, thought it might be helpful to share a few eye exercises that many Classical Indian Dancers use in their daily practice & in performances.

Suba decided to be as casual as possible, so you know it doesn't take much preparation. Basically, sit comfortably, with your spine straight and your feet planted on the ground. Keep your chin parallel to the ground (not leaning forward) and open your eyes as wide as possible, throughout the entire session. Do not move your eyeballs too fast. Start slow… The aim here is to move your eyeballs independently of your neck muscles and that takes time. Sometimes it helps to video-tape yourself doing this OR have someone watch you because it is hard at the beginning to instinctively feel when we are connecting neck muscle movement with our eyes.

Here we go:-
There is NO VOCAL instructions in the video. Four eyeball movements are shown. For each movement, Suba demonstrates the direction first and then follows that up with 4 repetitions. Below are the four directions shown in the video:-
First movement – side to side.
Second movement – up and down
Third movement – Diagonal (one direction)
Fourth movement – Diagonal (the other direction)

On Wednesday we will post 4 curvy eyeball movements for practice. Meanwhile, let’s keep our eyes healthy and safe, along with all the other health precautions we are taking. AND do comment with comments/questions if you have any.

07/23/2020

Super fun to see Natya Leela Academy dance students shine and talk about how they are moving through life and dance. Read about our recent High School graduate Nayantara Arora (Rajinder Arora & Priya Kapoor) who was awarded the National Security Language Initiative for Youth Virtual Summer Intensive scholarship to study Arabic for five weeks. She is one of 500 students selected for the program out of a pool of 3,000 applicants, who study languages like Chinese, Russian or Turkish. https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/474130-383231-st-marys-grad-receives-state-department-language-scholarship. CONGRATULATIONS Nayantara. Super proud of you. Subashini Ganesan, New Expressive Works

05/30/2019

Natya Leela will be back to perform on the My People's Market stage. We will be a part of New Expressive Works' program (from 2:15pm - 3:00pm) this Saturday, June 1st. Visit My Peoples Market 4 - Free Admission to learn more about this event and COME and support local, multi-cultural vendors and artists. Thanks to Y.G.B Portland for organizing the cultural events!

09/29/2018

Come see us perform at the Central Library tomorrow from 2:30pm - 3:30pm in the US Bank Room for A Celebration of Classical Indian Arts: Dance, Music and Poetry... This program is curated by Creative Laureate of Portland, our Artistic Director and founder of New Expressive Works, Subashini Ganesan. Natya Leela Bharathanatyam students will join Nartana Kuchipudi, Sitara Razaqi Lones (performing Kathak) and Yashaswini Raghuram (performing Odissi)! We are looking forward to sharing the history, and diversity of Classical Indian Dance forms with everyone.

09/01/2018

FALL REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Natya Leela Academy offers 12-week Beginner Series for new students of all ages. Come learn the fundamentals of Bharathanatyam, an intricate, beautiful, and athletic dance form from Southern India. Study with Natya Leela's Artistic Director and Creative Laureate of Portland, Subashini Ganesan. All series begin September 22nd. Visit http://www.natyaleela.com/classes.html and register today. We look forward to dancing with you this FALL.

08/01/2018

"Tracing the Essence" performed at 2018 JAW Big Weekend of Free Staged Readings and Other Fun Stuff. Thank you to Portland Center Stage at The Armory for inviting Natya Leela's Artistic Director, Subashini Ganesan, to present a Contemporary Bharatanatyam performance. "Tracing the Essence" explores relationships between multi-regional dance genres of the Indian Subcontinent. We draw from the strengths of Bharathanatyam, Kathak, and Garba, and connect deeply with the "Rasa" (essence OR core of emotions) philosophy that tends to be the underlying principal of many Indian dance forms. My concept and choreography was brought to life through collaborating with Nayantara Arora (Rajinder Arora), Sitara Razaqi Lones, Sruti Raghavan, and Priti Shah. Video Credit: Scott H. Forbes

08/01/2018

"Tracing the Essence" performed at 2018 JAW Big Weekend of Free Staged Readings and Other Fun Stuff. Thank you to Portland Center Stage at The Armory for inviting Natya Leela's Artistic Director, Subashini Ganesan, to present a Contemporary Bharatanatyam performance. "Tracing the Essence" explores relationships between multi-regional dance genres of the Indian Subcontinent. We draw from the strengths of Bharathanatyam, Kathak, and Garba, and connect deeply with the "Rasa" (essence OR core of emotions) philosophy that tends to be the underlying principal of many Indian dance forms. My concept and choreography was brought to life through collaborating with Nayantara Arora (Rajinder Arora), Sitara Razaqi Lones, Sruti Raghavan, and Priti Shah. (Video by Scott H. Forbes)

07/11/2018

We are ready to perform "Kiku Rasa" ("Listen to the Essence") for Beaverton's Ten Tiny Dances this Saturday, July 14th! Natya Leela Artistic Director, Subashini Ganesan and Company Member, Nayantara Arora (Priya Kapoor) are collaborating with the co-directors and company members of UNIT SOUZOU (Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe). This choreography brings to life our musings about listening deeply, connecting to the core of our art-making, and communicating authentically with our audiences. Can't wait to see many of you there!
IMPORTANT: Check the map image included to get a sense of where we will be. Our Stage is Number 2.
TIMES: We perform 5 times - 10:30am, 11:00am, 11:30am, 12:00pm, and 12:30pm.
LOCATION: Stage #2 (Crescent and Hall)

07/01/2018

Natya Leela is honored to have been invited to perform at My People's Market! Thank you to Y.G.B. Portland for asking us to share our art-form yesterday:-) A few images from the event! It was also a joy that Sanya and Arshia, from two other local dance schools, were able to perform on the same stage, allowing us to showcase the diversity of Bharanatyam artists we have in Portland.

Natya Leela

10/01/2022

09/09/2020

09/07/2020

07/23/2020

05/30/2019

09/29/2018

09/01/2018

08/01/2018

08/01/2018

07/11/2018

07/01/2018

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