Smaran Dance Festival 2018 Performers Profile
Bhairavi Nedungadi
Bhairavi Nedungadi is an artist trained in Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kuchipudi. Her affinity for the arts comes with no surprise. She hails from a family of renowned artists, her grandfather Late Vasu Nedungadi, a Krishnanattam artist who performed ‘Krishnavesham’ at Guruvayoor and her father Late Padmanabhan Nedungadi, secretary of Kathakali club, Thrissur, worked to promote Kathakali art form. His deeds to promote Kathakali have inspired Bhairavi to do her part to bring awareness and appreciation to one of the richest classical dance forms of Kerala- Mohiniyattam.
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Senior Disciple of Guru Padmashree Kalamandalam Kshemavathi, Bhairavi has been learning dance from the age of four. She began learning from Guru Kalamandalam Sudha and presented her formal solo debut performance, the Arangetram, in Guruvayoor, India at the age of 14 under the guidance of Guru Kshemavathi. After her Rangapravesha, she continued her rigorous training in Mohiniyattam under Guru Kshemavathi. She was a regular performer at school youth festivals in the state of Kerala and has bagged ‘Kalathilakam’ award. She has also won first place for Mohiniyattam in All Kerala Interzone youth festival.
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It is her continued passion to learn and she is currently undergoing advanced training in Mohiniyattam under the tutelage of Dr Neena Prasad. Bhairavi has performed to diverse audiences in India and US across multiple festivals. She is acclaimed for her versatility as a performer and a trainer. Classical dance has always been an integral part of Bhairavi’s life. She is the founder of Sreepadmam School of Dance, a classical dance institute based in Fremont and the school imparts training to students in Mohiniyattam and Bharatanatyam. Bhairavi holds a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington and she is currently working at Logitech, Newark, CA.
Surya Ravi
Surya Ravi is a passionate Bharatanatyam dancer who began her initial training at the age of 10 under Guru Smt. Vidya Krishnan. She has continued training under Guru Smt. Radhika Ganesh in Dallas, TX. She performed in many productions with Expressions School of Dance as well as in various community events and fundraisers prior to moving to the Bay Area. She was also a Fellow of the prestigious IndianRaga Fellowship in 2016 and featured in their video productions. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and hopes to apply the knowledge to Indian Classical Dance. She is dedicated to pursuing dance throughout her life and growing as an artist.
Keerthana Yellapragada
Dr. Keerthana Yellapragada, age 24, began her dance journey at the age of 5 when she was initiated into Bharathanatyam by renowned Bay Area guru Smt. Mythili Kumar. She continued her training till the age of 12, and started her Kuchipudi training under Bay Area guru Smt. Vaidehi Yellai, from the age of 9. At the age of 16, she moved to Hyderabad to pursue a career in Dentistry, and she has ever since been training under Guru Smt. Chavali Balatripurasundari garu( D/o Padmabhusan Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam garu). She has had the great fortune of learning under her guru’s expertise and guidance,and has been trained in the pure Vempati style of Kuchipudi. She participated in numerous prestigious events and productions under her guru’s tutelage. Keerthana is extremely passionate about dance and aims to pursue it alongside her dental career in the United States.
Manasi Madhusmita
Manasi Madhusmita is an accomplished Odissi dancer of the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Gharana. She has been dancing since early age. Her formal training started with Gurushree Anita SinghDeo and later on ornamented her skills from eminent Gurus Shree Naba Kishore Mishra and Srimanti Sharmila Mukherjee.
Manasi, currently student of Shree Vishnu Tattva Das has been a devotee of this beautiful art form for the past 25 years during which she has performed extensively in India and in California as a soloist and with the repertoire group of Abarta- India and Odissi Vilas - CA. The vision of Odissi Vilas is to preserve the cultural heritage, promote, educate and delight audiences with the mystical beauty and spirituality of Odissi dance.
She has imbibed within herself the Essence of this beautiful art form with purity and perfection. She is a Visharad in Odissi apart from being an IT professional.
Manasi’s technical perfection combined with feminine grace gives glimpses of her bright future as a promising dancer with distinct signature of the iconic Kelucharan-ji Gharana.
Vrushali Mundhe
Vrushali began her study of Kathak under Dr. Manjiri Deo at age 6 in India. After moving to USA for her masters, she continued her study at maestro Late Pandit Chitresh Das' Chhandam school of Kathak. Currently she has being pursing Kathak training under Guru Shrimati Deepali tai Vichare and also instructor at Deepali tai’s dance school - Aarat. She has choreographed and performed in various community events and competitions. She likes to understand the intricacies of the piece and strives to bring in grace and expressions to her choreography. Vrushali is passionate about bringing Indian rich classical art form to global platform.
Apart from dancing Vrushali enjoys being senior engineer at Apple and mom to two young kids.