Smaran Kala Kaushala
Dr. Sanjay Shantaram
Dr. Sanjay Shantaram, a child prodigy was initiated to the nuance of Bharatanatyam at the tender age of 7 under the tutelage of Guru Smt. G.S. Rajalakshmi and in the later years from late Guru Smt. Narmada. He forayed into Kuchipudi dance form receiving training under gurus Smt. Sunanda Devi and Smt. Veena Murthy Vijay.
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He has been performing for 35 years now with over 3000 shows to his name. Since 1980, he has been exclusively touring America and United Kingdom performing and conducting several workshops. He has also been invited to perform in Muscat, Indonesia, Andaman, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Switzerland leaving his audience spellbound.
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While his passion for dance and acting in movies and TV shows got him a lot of recognition, he didn’t let his academics suffer but successfully completed dentistry.
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Accolades have only embraced this triumphant artist since his childhood.
National award for best child actor as ayappa in 5 languages in 1989.
SAMAJA SEVA BHUSHANA by the shubharam trust for his dedication to the artiste community
ROTARY VOCATIONAL AWARD
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THE RAMGOPAL AWARD for best male dancer 2012 by the Indian Dance history society, New Delhi
Titles such as Navarasa balaka, kannada kala kanda, Kala arathi ratna are some of the feathers in his cap.
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He started his journey as a teacher at the age of 15. He established SHIVAPRIYA school of dance in1989 imparting his knowledge of dance to his ardent disciples. It is now an academy of 250 aspiring artists in Bangalore and Kunigal who are now diligently following their master’s footsteps securing top ranks and several disciples have started their own dance academies.
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.