Smaran Kala Kaushala
Guru Smt. Mythili Kumar
The Smaran Kala Koushala is awarded for Gurus or performing artists for their outstanding dedication to the field of arts. This year we are humbled to present this award to Guru. Smt Mythili Kumar - Artistic director of Abhinaya Dance company.
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An accomplished artist, Mythili Kumar performed extensively in India before moving to the U.S. in 1978 and founding Abhinaya Dance School in 1980. Her artistic ability and the high quality of her dance choreography have been recognized in the U.S where she has been awarded several Choreographer’s Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mythili Kumar has taught at Stanford University and San Jose State University, and currently teaches a fall semester course at University of California at Santa Cruz. In 2002 the Shiva Vishnu Temple of Livermore awarded her the title, ‘Abhinaya Kala Ratna’ for her dedicated service to dance. Bharath Kalachar in Chennai awarded her the title ‘Viswa Kala Bharati’ in 1999.
In 2010 she was honored by World Arts West with the Malonga Casquelord Lifetime Achievement Award and received a Sustained Achievement Award from the Bay Area Isadora Duncan Award committee in 2011. Most recently, she received the 2015 Legacy Laureate Award from SVCreates for her sustained dedication to dance.
Smaran Kala Spoorthi
Sharmila Gopinathan
Sharmila Gopinathan started learning Bharathanatyam at age 4 with several teachers in Kalpakkam, India. She had her Bharathanatyam arangetram with late Guru Kalaimamani Shree Shanmugha Sunderam Pillai. After about 10 years of learning Bharathanatyam, she took a break from this dance form and explored various other dance forms such as Kuchipudi, tap, jazz, West African, ballroom and Latin styles, Mexican Ballet Folklorico , kathak, ballet and hip-hop. In April 2001 she went back to taking lessons in Bharathanatyam, first with Ms Aparna Sindhoor in Boston and then with Ms. Hema Rajagopalan in Chicago. Since moving to the bay area in 2008, she has taken workshops from many gurus and performed Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi, folk, and Bollywood dance at various events. She is associated with Smaran since 2011.
Smaran Kala TAPASVI
Arvind Chinya
Arvind Chinya is a seasoned professional working in the IT consulting industry. He has a passion for being part of art and drama, and expresses his creativity being part of the lights and sound team for productions in the Bay Area. Arvind has been part of several Dance productions- Roopa Virooupa, Aladdin, Prahalada, Nrityalaya Annual Day, World Dance Day and many others and for Theatrical plays such as Sakharam Binder, Nothing like that, Panchavati and others.