Six Trailblazers To Reflect On Decades Of Bharata Natyam In America
India-West News Desk
IRVINE, CA – In a rare coming together of lineage, memory, and movement, “Dance Conversations” will bring six pioneering Bharata Natyam practitioners in the US to the stage on May 2, transforming performance into both archive and dialogue.
Hosted by the Ektaa Center in collaboration with the Arpana Dance Company, it will be held at the Clarence Needham Auditorium, here.
More than a showcase, the evening is conceived as an act of documentation and preservation. By pairing performance with first-person narrative, “Dance Conversations” seeks to capture a living history of the form’s journey in the United States, shaped as much by individual devotion as by collective cultural evolution.
Each of the six featured artists, all senior torchbearers of the form in the U.S., will present a solo piece alongside personal reflections on their artistic journeys. Collectively, they represent more than five decades of teaching, performing, and building institutions that have anchored Bharata Natyam within the South Asian diaspora.
Among them is Katherine Kunhiraman, who arrived in India at 18 and found in the dance form a convergence of theater, history, and spirituality. Since the mid-1970s, her work has paralleled the growth of Indian cultural presence in America, through performances, lecture-demonstrations, and teaching.
Rathna Kumar, a widely recognized performer, choreographer, and educator, founded one of the earliest Indian dance institutions in the U.S. Her contributions span not only the stage but also scholarship and community outreach.
Chicago-based Hema Rajagopalan has spent decades expanding the vocabulary of Bharata Natyam for contemporary audiences, while remaining rooted in tradition through her company, Natya Dance Theatre.
For Mythili Kumar, choreography has also been a vehicle for social storytelling. Her productions have drawn from the lives of figures like Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr., using classical idiom to explore themes of justice and civil rights.
Los Angeles-based Viji Prakash has similarly bridged geographies and disciplines, with her work extending to international residencies and cross-cultural collaborations, including projects in Indonesia through UCLA.
Completing the lineup is Ramya Harishankar, whose performance career and curatorial work have helped sustain Indian dance ecosystems across continents, while also channeling art into philanthropy through her company’s productions.
Following the performances, a talk-back led by dance historian Jennifer Fisher invites the audience into the conversation, creating space for reflection on how Bharata Natyam has been transmitted, adapted, and reimagined in the American context.
