Our Staff
Current Bharatanatyam Instructors:
Mythili Kumar, founder and artistic director since 1980, is an accomplished artist proficient in Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Odissi. She has trained and presented over ninety dancers in their solo debuts and has toured with the company to India and other parts of the U.S. She currently teaches juniors and advanced level classes.
Sharada Bose joined Abhinaya Dance Company as a student in 1992 and had her arangetram in December 1997. Since her arangetram, Sharada has continued to train under Mythili Kumar along with teaching dance at Abhinaya. A dedicated teacher, she volunteers her time to teach the younger generation at Abhinaya.
Rasika Kumar is the daughter of Mythili Kumar and has been her student since 1987. Since her arangetram in 1996, Rasika has performed in many of Abhinaya productions. Rasika has toured with Abhinaya to India as well as many cities in the U.S.A and has performed nattuvangam on numerous occasions. Rasika traveled to Chennai, India in 2004 to work intensely with master teachers Smt Kalanidhi Narayanan, and Sri C.V. Chandrasekhar. She has been teaching classes for Abhinaya since 1996.
Malavika Kumar is the daughter of Mythili Kumar and has been her student since 1990. She performed her arangetram in July 1998 and has performed in many of Abhinaya productions. Malavika has also toured with Abhinaya to India as well as many cities in the U.S.A. She has performed nattuvangum for several performances, and has presented her choreography for the last three years. She coaches students preparing for their arangetrams.
Anjana Dasu performed her arangetram in 2005 after several years of training. Since then, she has participated actively in many of Abhinaya.s productions. She has been assisting with classes since 2005. She also coaches students preparing for their arangetrams.
Lakshmi Venkatesan performed her arangetram in 2005 and has participated in several Abhinaya’s dance productions and student recitals since 1996. Lakshmi works part time as the school coordinator at the Abhinaya office and has been teaching the youngest students at Abhinaya since 2005.
Anu Ranganathan has been learning Bharathanatyam for over fifteen years and performed her arangetram in February 2003. She has toured with the company to Idaho and has participated in several productions as a company dancer since 2003 including the SF Ethnic Dance Festival. Anu graduated from the University of Southern California with a Masters in Education and currently teaches 7th grade science. She has been assisting with classes since 2009.
Devika Ajaya performed her arangetram in 2003 and was conducting classes for Abhinaya from 2000. She moved to Malaysia, where she taught Bharatanatyam for over ten students for the past three years. Having relocated to the San Jose area, she will be teaching the younger children from Fall 2011.
Kaushika Vayyala performed her arangetram in August 2008 after training for seven years. She has participated in many Abhinaya student recitals and company productions and has been assisting with classes since 2009.