Smaran Awards 2025 Honorees
Smaran Performing Arts is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Smaran Awards, a tradition that celebrates the torchbearers of Indian classical arts in the Bay Area. These titles honor individuals whose lifelong dedication, creativity, and service continue to enrich and inspire our cultural community.
Smaran Kala Kaushala – Excellence in Artistic Dedication
Awarded to Guru Smt. Nirmala Madhava and Smt. Asha Ramesh for their outstanding mentorship and contributions to shaping generations of artists.
Guru. Smt. Nirmala Madhava
Nirmala Madhava is a performer, chief choreographer, and teacher at PAMPA Dance Academy since its founding in
1992. She is proficient in both Kathak & Bharathanatya dance forms. She graduated from Bangalore University,
Karnataka, with a B.A. in dance. Nirmala's journey in dance started at a young age with (late) Guru Lalitha Dorai
and continued with (late) Guru Narmada. Nirmala is also an accomplished Kathak dancer (Lucknow Gharana), and was trained by Dr. Maya Rao of Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography, Bangalore, India. Her intense training, vast knowledge, and her unique style, make Nirmala a very creative choreographer. She has not only performed
around the world, but has also taught in schools, colleges and universities. She has been instrumental in
representing Indian culture and traditions in various prestigious events in different capacities. She led the
performance by the PAMPA team at a welcome reception in the Bay Area for the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr.Narendra Modi.
She has worked with the world-renowned choreographer, Lawrence Pech and performed with her
group in San Francisco Opera’s production of Aida. She was also a panelist at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance
Festival, which is one of the most significant dance festivals of its type in North America. She choreographed an
English song in Bharathanatya at the prestigious RSA conference. She is passionate about teaching dance and has
shared this passion with several institutions such as schools, libraries and retirement facilities around the Bay Area.
She has trained many students in both Bharathanatya and Kathak dance forms. Under her guidance, 54 students
have performed their solo debuts. Her devotion to dance has encouraged her students to develop a long-lasting
love and passion for dance and Indian culture and traditions. For more information please visit:
Guru Smt. Asha Ramesh
She is a celebrated vocalist from San Jose, California, is renowned for her versatility and mastery of Carnatic music. A devoted disciple of the legendary Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sri. D. K. Jayaraman and Nanganallur V. Ramanathan, Asha has earned widespread recognition through numerous prestigious awards, including the Rajaji Memorial Tambura Award, the Swaminatha Pillai Memorial Gold Medal, and the Vijayalakshmi Memorial Award for Best Vocalist from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in India. Gana Kala Ratnam, Gana Kala Bhooshani, Mathura Isai Vani and Isai Arasi are some of the titles that Asha has been awarded over the past years for her contributions to the world of music.
Asha is also an accomplished composer, having created music for a vast range of dance productions and collaborated with artists globally. Her body of work includes over 35 thillanas and many bhajans and abhangs. She also composed and performed all the songs for her Tamil album, Thenum Thinaiyum.
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Asha teamed up with her son, Rohith Jayaraman, an accomplished musician in his own right, to release Manam, an original album that confronts contemporary social issues through music.Most recently, Asha presented Yatra, a concert featuring her own original compositions as a fundraiser for Community Seva.
As the founder and artistic director of the Ragamalika School of Music, established in 1992, Asha has been a cornerstone of the San Jose Bay Area’s music community, nurturing the next generation of musicians for over three decades.
Smaran Kala Nada Brahma – Embodiment of Musical Divinity
Presented to Guru Sri Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan, renowned mridangist and founder of Nadhopasana Academy of Fine Arts, whose artistry and decades of teaching have nurtured generations of percussionists while uplifting countless concerts and dance productions across the Bay Area and beyond.
Hailing from the illustrious Embar family, Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan is a highly respected mridangam artiste with a performing career spanning over 43 years, both in India and the United States. As one of the prime disciples of Vidwan Sri Neyveli Narayanan, Ravi has accompanied many leading musicians and dancers across genres, making him a sought-after presence on prestigious stages.
A passionate teacher and mentor, Ravi has been dedicated to imparting this divine art form for the past 25 years. He is the founder and director of Nadhopasana Academy of Fine Arts, a premier percussion school where he nurtures the next generation of mridangam artists with commitment, rigor, and love for tradition.
Ravi's creativity also extends to innovation. After six years of dedicated research, he designed the “3-P-M” (Three-Part Mridangam)—a groundbreaking instrument capable of covering all pitch ranges in a single mridangam. This invention has received wide acclaim from the music fraternity, offering a practical and revolutionary solution for percussionists worldwide.
His contributions have been widely recognized through numerous honors, including:
• Sangeetha Seva Puraskar by Kalalaya (2017)
• Prof. T.R. Subrahmanyam Award for Best Teacher by Cleveland Aradhana (2023)
• Award from Neelakanta Sivan Cultural Academy for decades of service• Kala Shiromani by Kalaanjali DanceCompany
• Parampara Rakshak by VVS Foundation and Saa Maa Arts
• Kala Shresta by SIFA (2024)In addition to his musical excellence,
Ravi is celebrated as a community unifier and cultural leader in the Bay Area. Through his non-profit Guruvaram Performing Arts, he actively fosters collaboration between music and dance communities, making classical arts more vibrant and accessible.
Smaran Kala Tapasvi – Devotion in Service to the Arts
Honoring Smt. Santa Dasu, founder of Yuva Bharati, for her decades of selfless dedication to the arts. Through her vision and leadership, she has created a platform that has supported countless artists, sustained Indian classical dance in the Bay Area, and inspired new generations to connect with tradition while embracing innovation.
Santa Dasu is a Software professional who worked in various tech companies for past 35 years and is currently working for a startup. She co-founded Yuva Bharati, a non-profit organization in 2006 to promote classical Indian performing arts. Since Yuva Bharati's inception, they have hosted 150 dance concerts hosting 400+ dancers from across USA and India in five different dance forms, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathak and Mohiniattam.
Under the Swara Lahari program, Yuva Bharati created 500 30-minute episodes of classical Indian music in studios in both Carnatic and Hindustani genres. Santa is instrumental in creating Music in the Park series to spread classical music to uninitiated audiences. These concerts are very well received by community as they are a great way to introduce classical music to children. She is involved in curating all these activities which are much appreciated by teachers, students and the community
Join us as we celebrate these luminaries at the Smaran Dance Festival 2025, honoring their remarkable journeys and contributions to the classical arts.
Smaran Kala Spoorthi – Inspiration Through Art
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"Dr. Nadhi Thekkek is a dancer, choreographer, and the Artistic Director of Nava Dance Theatre. Nadhi uses the south Indian dance form of bharatanatyam to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of her lived experience as a child of immigrants and a South Asian, diasporic, woman. Her body of work connects contemporary histories to today, creating critical intersections of culturally specific art, diaspora, and storytelling, and reimagines how bharatanatyam can serve marginalized narratives that need to occupy space right now. Her latest touring work “Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” sources community interviews, historical texts, and poetry to explore the intersections of labor, agency, and belonging in our South Asian ancestry.
Nadhi’s body of work has been supported through the NEFA National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and others. Through Nava, Nadhi also produces and co-facilitates the Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program, where South Asian dancemakers create art that challenges the status quo. She is one of the co-founders of Varnam Salon, serves on the board of the Western Arts Alliance, and serves as an advisor for the NEFA National Dance Project. Nadhi was recently named a finalist for the Dance USA Fellowship.
Nadhi has learned bharatanatyam from Guru Smt. Sundara Swaminathan (Kala Vandana Dance Company, San Jose) and Guru Smt. Padmini Chari (Nritya School of Dance, Houston). As of 2012, she has continued training under
Guru Sri. A. Lakshmanaswamy (Nrityalakshana, Chennai)."