Hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Usha commenced Baratanatyam at the tender age of 5, under Smt. Malliga Perumal, herself a disciple of acclaimed guru Sri C.V. Chandrasekhar. Usha's love of dance travelled with her when she moved to Singapore and subsequently Australia, where she performed at various venues and festivals, including winning an array of dance competitions held at collegiate level. Since relocating to New York in 2010, she continues to train with Malini Srinivasan, another of Sri C.V. Chandrasekhar's proteges. When she is not dancing, Usha is a lawyer with Deutsche Bank.

Jyotsna Kalyansundar
Troupe Member

Jyotsna has been learning Bharatanatyam since the age of 5, under the tutelage of Padmabhushan Shri. V.P Dhananjayan and Smt.Shanta Dhananjayan from Chennai, India. During the last 22 years of training she has performed as a soloist in renowned dance festivals like Natyarangam and the Chennai December Dance Festival. She has also been actively involved in several dance productions conceptualized by her gurus and has won several interschool and intercollegiate awards for best dancer and best choreography. She is currently pursuing a second Masters in Organization Psychology at Teacher’s College Columbia University, NY. Her passion for Bharatanatyam led her to join the Navatman troupe in February 2012 and is simultaneously continuing her training with Sahasra Sambamoorthi.

Aanchal Raj
Troupe Member

For Aanchal Raj, dance is a passion. It has been an important part of her life for as long as she can remember. She began her dance journey when she was three years old. After learning from various dance teachers, she came under the tutelage of Guru Charu Narasimhan to learn Bharatanatyam in Washington DC. She performed her Arangetram in 2007. In addition to Bharatanatyam, she has trained in classical Ballet and Tap for twelve years. She has danced at many competitions and performed at several productions in theaters in Washington DC, including Wolf Trap, Kennedy center, Smithsonian and in India. While completing her Engineering degree at Carnegie Mellon University, she performed at various competitions including Bhangra, Fusion, Hip-hop, Dancers' symposiums and Musicals. Dance has been a constant in her life and that is why she joined Navatman dance in January 2012.

Arthi Ramachandran
Troupe Member

Arthi's love affair with Bharatanatyam started at the age of 5 under Smt. Kamala Narayanan. She continued her dance training in Chennai under Smt. Yogeshwari Saveri Raj (disciple of K.J. Sarasa). She performed her Arangetram in 2001 in Chennai, India. She was a member of Kalaa, the Indian classical dance troupe at Princeton during her undergrad years in various capacities from choreographer and dancer to stage manager and MC. She is very happy to, once again, return to Bharatanatyam through Navatman. Arthi is a currently PhD candidate in Computational Biology at Columbia University.

Sahasra Sambamoorthi
Soloist, Artistic Director

Sahasra Sambamoorthi is currently co-president at Anamika-Navatman. She learned bharatanatyam under Guru Smt Kalaimamani Ramya Ramnarayan and is the recipient of various awards including the NJSCA Folk Arts Apprenticeship. Following her graduation from Columbia University and learning much from the semi-classical troupe there Taal, she created Navatman Dance in an attempt to explore the boundaries of bharatanatyam. Currently, she is learning kathak from Ramya Agrawal and has taken (and hopes to continue to take) workshops in odissi with Bijayini Satpathy and Pavitra Bhatt (Nrityagram) and kuchipudi with Kishore Mosalikanti.

Soumya's passion for dancing began at the age of 5, and has been learning Bharatanatyam for over 15 years. Soumya is currently a student of Sahasra Sambamoorthi prior to which she was under the tutelage of Guru. Bhanumati from Bangalore who is a disciple of Padmashri K.N.Dandayuthapani Pillai. Apart from Bharatanatyam Soumya has won many awards for Group Contemporary dance in Bangalore at inter-collegiate competitions during her undergraduate days at BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. Following which, she has also been an active member of the cultural association RIGSA, Rutgers Indian Graduate Student Association, New Jersey.

Sabina Sebastian
Troupe Member

Sabina Sebastian, originally from Kerala, has followed her lifelong passion for dance to train in a diverse range of styles. At the age of four, she began Bharatnatyam under Sri Raja Rajeshwari in New York. She expanded to Mohiniyattam and Kuchipudi under Sri Vijayalakshmi in Cochin. At the university level, she studied Martha Graham Technique and Jazz, and went on to lead Stony Brook University’s South Asian dance troupe to their first national competitions. Along the way, she won numerous awards for outstanding choreography, and was the first South Asian woman to earn a spot on the university’s hip hop dance troupe, Déjà Vu. With an M.B.A. in Marketing, she’s kept busy as an Ad Exec at McCann Worldgroup, but her enduring passion has led her back to dance, joining Navatman Dance in June 2011.

Core Members:

Our core is composed of our newest members to Navatman Dance!

Brinda S. Dixit, Vidya Santosh, Ruchita Parikh, Priyanka Uchil

Older members:

Many dancers have come to help bring the troupe to what it is today. We applaud those dancers who have created time in their busy schedules to manage this company!

Taniya Panda, Natasha Raheja, Tanvi Bajaj, Aishwarya Iyer, Soumya Subramaniam, Kamya Somasundaram, Visali Ramanathan, Rohini Rau Murthy, Rohini Nair, Vani Nambudiri