Events

Nrityapriya Fine Arts Inc.





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PAST EVENTS

Sri Rama Charitham on July 16, 2017 at Westfield High School
Dancers: Dr. Rajendra Kedlaya, Smt. Aparna Satheesan, Kum. Jwala Rejimon, Smt. Savitha Venkatapathy, Kum. Karnika Mehrotra, Kum. Madhumita Rajendra 
Nattuvanar : Smt. Savitha Venkatapathy
Master of Ceremony: Dr. Anindita Sen
Musicians: Vocalists : Smt. Geetha Navanithan and Sri.Sai Rathinasabapathy, Mridangam : Sri.Ganesan Gajendran, Violin : Sri.Jayaprakash Pakala, Flute : Sri.Nataraj Gunda, Tabla: Dr. Amudhan Venkateswaran
Video : Hari Prasad, Mohan Devaraju
Photo: Sreehari Sivasubramaniam, Sudip Das, Kannan Natarajan
Stage Audio & Light : Raghavendra Tadagini, Uday Murthy, Rajesh Venkatapathy
Artists Make-up: Roopa Rajendra, Vidya Bettegere, Lakshmi Kannan, Rani Rejimon
Decorations: Smitha Sharma, Anand Sharma, Padma Ramaswamy, Lakshmi Kannan, Vani Sharma, Anitha Sharma
Food Volunteers: Sath Annamalai, Babu Ambat, Rajendra Govindaswamy, Ravi Dinakaran, Kaushal Bhargav, Padma Ramaswami, Sreekesh, Sinu Paul, Swaminathan Pillai, Raghu Palde, Ashok Pillai, Lalitha Palde, Bindu Nair, Sanjay Kalluparambil, Anjali Pillai, Rishi, Ardhit
Front Desk: Geetha Babu, Renju Swaminathan, Mehernaz Mathur, Roopa Rao, Smitha Kalluparambil, Lakshmi Palde
Brochure Distribution: Lasya and Akshara Amudhan
Assures: Divya Annamalai, Niveda Dudlur, Nikhil Palde









Bio-Data of DANCERS

Sri. Rajendra Kedlaya



Dr. Rajendra Kedlayais a scientist by profession and the guru of Yakshahejje, School of Yakshagana and Performing Arts has learned Yakshagana under the tutelage of Guru B. Sanjeeva Suvarna of Yakshagana Kendra, Udupi, Karnataka, India. He has won first prize in many yakshagana competitions and has performed nationally and internationally. Hampi Festival in Karnataka, India, Festivals of Asian Performing Arts in Singapore, Woodford Folk Festival in Brisbane, Australia, Association of Kannada Kootas of America, in the USA, are to name a few. His programs were televised in both Delhi and Bangalore Doordarshan in India. He also travels all over the USA to showcase Yakshagana performance. Rajendra Kedlaya was also very fortunate to be a part of an hour and a half duration one man ballet, a unique experimentation in Yakshagana art form called “Panchali”, depicting the story of Mahabharata which received much appreciation and accolades from the critics.


Smt. Aparna Satheesan

Aparna Satheesan, Artistic Director of Samyoga School of Arts and disciple of Guru Padmabhushan Dhananjayans, Guru Smt. Vyjayanthi Kashi and Regatta Girija Chandran, is a talented dancer, started dancing at an age of 3 and has performed for prestigious events in India and abroad. Prestigious events organized by ICCR, Soorya Festival(India), Guruvayoor Temple festival, Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana,  featured performer at The Balaji temple, Chicago, Light and Sound Show, Global Rhythms and many more are some of her major performances. She is a well known performer, choreographer and teacher who mastered in both Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi and teaches these dance forms for the young generation. She has won several awards and recognition at this young age and is renowned for her creative dance productions. In 2015, she won runner up in Bharatanatyam for Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Aparna has exceptional choreographic and musical sense. Performing for an event directed by renowned musician A.R Rahman had added more stars in her career.  She is a graceful and talented dancer who excels in nritta as well as abhinaya aspects of dance. Aparna involves herself to organize and perform in many charitable activities and has started a non-profit organization, Samyoga Foundation in India with this objective.

Kum. Jwala Rejimon
Kumari Jwala Priyadarshini Rejimon, the founding member of Nrityapriya Fine Arts Inc.,completed her Arangetram in August of 2015 with her guru Smt. Mangala Anand, who teaches the Vazhuvoor style of Bharatanatyam. After the completion of her Arangetram, Jwala proceeded to learn under the esteemed Guru Smt. Savithri Jagannatha Rao, alumni of Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts and direct disciple of Guru ‘Padma Bhushan’ Smt. Rukmini Devi Arundale. Jwala also learns from the Kalakshetra Professor, Smt. Nityakalyani Vaidhyanathan, who was the disciple of the celebrated Abinaya exponent Guru ‘Padma Bhushan’ Smt. Kalanidhi Narayanan, for over 30 years. Jwala’s dancing has also been groomed by Guru Smt. Rhadha Ramanathan, the younger sister in the dancing duo of Kamala and Rhadha, who were taught by Vazhuvoor Ramaiyah Pillai and featured in several 1900’s films.

Jwala’s vigorous training paid off as she went on to perform at various prestigious sabhas in Chennai, including Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, R.K. Swamy Auditorium, and T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai Auditorium. She also received the opportunity to perform at the Karur Natyanjali Festival and at the esteemed platform of the Chidambaram Natyanjali Festival, where she received many praises as a young and upcoming artist. Jwala was also featured and broadcast live on the Nadaneerajanam series at Thirupathi, and has been featured on Kalaignar TV twice as part of their Natya Utsavam series. In 2016, Jwala became a prizewinner of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Bharathanatyam Competition, thus winning her a place in the 2017 Srimad Bhagavatham dance productions. She took a break from Purdue University for one semester to go to India and participate actively in the production rehearsals and the tour, as well as to refine her solo dancing with a focused and vigorous approach. The Srimad Bhagavatham tour gave Jwala the opportunity to bond with several other dancers in the production, most of whom were from Chennai. The influence of her guru’s and her love for dance have inspired Jwala to aim towards spreading knowledge and a love for classical arts throughout the younger generations of Indian children who grow up in America without much exposure to the richness of Indian culture. 

Smt. Savitha Venkatapathy  

Smt. Savitha Venkatapathy is an ardent learner, performer and teacher of Bharathanatyam and Carnatic Music. She did her bharathanatya Arangetram in 2005 with Smt. Lalitha Subramaniam and later joined Sri Mudhraalaya for advance training. Under the able tutelage and guidance of Guru Dr.
Lakshmi Ramaswamy, she learnt the nuances of the art form in Vazhuvoor paani which is known for its grace. With a flair for research in dance, she also nurtured nattuvangam techniques, theory and abhinaya from her Guru for the last 12 years. She performed bharathanatyam solos, duets and group productions in several well-known sabhas including Narada Gana sabha, Indian Fine arts, South zone cultural academy, Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, VDS arts academy to name a few. She did Bharathanatya Arangetram of her student in 2015 at Chennai. She is currently pursuing MA Bharathanatyam with Madras university. Adept training in Carnatic music for the last 15 years under Smt. Padma Sandilyan and Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao, makes her a multi-faceted artist. With a passion to teach classical art forms, she teaches Carnatic music and Bharathanatyam for kids at Indianapolis. 

Kum. Karnika Mehrotra 

Karnika has been fortunate to learn Kathak under Guru Anindita Sen for 4 years. She began her training in Chicago at age 5 under Guru Gauri Jogh and then continued for 7 years under Guru Sheetal Dhanani. Karnika has performed Kathak at various cultural and school events over the last 4 years. She attended a workshop in New York under Pt. Birju Maharaj ji and Saswati Sen in 2016, which culminated in two performances at Madison Square Garden. In August of 2016, Karnika completed her Rang Manch Pranam, or Kathak graduation. Since then, she has debuted her first original choreography and performed at numerous events.
Karnika is also a part of the swim team and costumes crew at Park Tudor School, where she is currently a senior.

Kum. Madhumitha Rajendra 

Madhumitha Rajendra has been learning yakshagana for 5 years under the guidance of  Dr. Rajendra Kedlaya. She has performed in many different places such as the Asian Festival in Columbus Ohio, Kala Utsav in Chicago, and other local associations. Throughout the past few years, she has had the opportunity to depict different mythological roles such as Narasimha, Sugriva, Dharmaraya, Rama, and Laxmana.  Along with this Madhumitha has also been learning Bharathanatiyam from the past 10 years, and been learning the piano for the past 11 years. She is also a part of Hamilton Southeastern High School's  tennis team, where she is currently a senior.