Adhirai Karthik has been a student of Bharatnatyam under her mother, Dr. Deepa Mahadevan, since the age of four.  She completed her Bharatanatyam arangetram in September 2023. 

She has been taking part in several workshops with Guru Madurai R Muralidharan and other visiting teachers from India since 2020.

She is the founder of ‘Natya Mayuri’, a youth dance collective that believes in bringing the youth classical dance community together to collaborate and create together. Natya Mayuri regularly conducts workshops and community based public events for the New Jersey dance viewing public. Since its inception in 2023 Natya Mayuri has conducted four workshops involving  local and visiting artists from India and has been invited to participate in more than 15 community events. 

Adhirai has also played key roles in many mega musical productions of Guru Muralidharan like ‘Sivagaminyin Sabadam’ (2013), ‘Yagnaseni’ (2015), ‘Avatara Purushan’ (2016), Yadhava Madhava’’ (2018), Sanga Tamil (2020), Vayuputra (2023) to name a few.

Adhirai started learning Carnatic music under Guru Nandini Ramamurthi and now continues to pursue it under Vidushi Manasa Suresh.

Adhirai is also invested in acting both for the camera and theater. She was nominated as the best actress for ‘Saa Boo III’, a short film directed by Mohan Subramanian for BAFA. She was also the protagonist for a dance film, ‘Tradition Objectified’ which was nominated for the Davis Film Festival. Adhirai has also been featured in ‘Prematho’ another short film directed by Harshith Kotni from NYU Tisch. Adhirai is part of her High School Drama club and continues to take part in theater and musical productions throughout the year.

Adhirai is part of her high school Acapella team. She enjoys exploring and understanding music technique both through her western and Indian vocal training. Adhirai assists her mother in teaching younger children at Tiruchitrambalam School of Dance in New Jersey.

She is a Junior in Ridge High School. She is part of the Ridge Education, Action and Community Health club (REACH) and has been nominated to lead as a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) member.

Deepa Mahadevan is a disciple of Guru Usha Srinivasan and Madurai R Muralidharan. She traces her hereditary lineage to Nattuvanar, K N Dandayudapani Pillai, who was her teacher, Usha Srinivasan’s Guru.

Deepa is trained in Kalari Payattu, and Yoga. As a student of Odissi she has been performing Odissi for a decade. Deepa is trained in Carnatic music and is a student of Sanskrit with Samskrita Bharati.

Deepa completed her PhD with University of California, Davis in Performance Studies and is a published scholar. Her research traces Bharatanatyam aesthetics from 1930s to the 2020s.

Deepa is an active member of Dance Studies Association, National Dance Education Organization, Dance New Jersey and Intercultural Roots where she presents papers, conducts workshops, performs and fosters collaborations.

Deepa’s aesthetics is an amalgam of her different artistic collaborations over twenty five years of professional dancing, which she offers to her students.

Deepa is the founder and artistic director of Tiruchitrambalam School of Dance. Over thirty students from Tiruchitrambalam have completed their Solo dance graduation recital under Deepa’s guidance. Students of Tiruchitrambalam have also won awards, participated in mega productions and performed in prestigious venues including the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Young Arts Festival, Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, Rotunda Festival, Dance New Jersey Festival to name a few.

Deepa’s practice weighs heavily on improvisation and creating work 'with the audience' than 'at the audience.' She constantly strives to find space in her practice that celebrates spontaneity while dealing with uncertainty. She hopes to pass on this curiosity and the excitement to delve into uncertainty as her artistic legacy to her students.

Srikanth Gopalakrishnan is a Versatile and much sought after Classical Carnatic Vocal artiste, Musicologist, Composer and a Resource person !! Hailing from a family of musicians, Srikanth learnt the artform from his mother, the legendary Smt Leelavathy Gopalakrishnan from his childhood. He underwent advanced training from Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shri T M Thyagarajan, for nearly ten years. He was awarded the Government of India Cultural Scholarship to undertake extensive training from Sangeetha Choodamani Shri O S Thiagarajan. He widened his reportoire by learning different compositions from Stalwarts like Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shri T K Govinda Rao, Sangeetha Mahopadhyaya Shri T R Subramaniam and Sangeetha Vidwan Shri A Sundaresan*.

A Multi Linguist, Srikanth is an " A " Graded musician of the All India Radio, Chennai. He holds a Master's Degree in Indian Music from the University of Madras and a  Bachelor of Engineering in Computer science from Bangalore University. 

One of the most respected and popular percussionists for dance, Kesavan’s brilliant innovations makes him stand out as a creative artist par excellence. He is proficient in many different percussive instruments, especially the Chenda. He has also collaborated with famous film music directors like Ilayaraja and A.R. Rahman. He frequently composes percussion sequences for dancers, and has accompanied well known artists such as Shobana, Madurai R. Muralidaran, Anita Ratnam, Rukmini Vijayaraj, Ratna Kumar (Houston, Texas) & Radica Giri.

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AWARDS

1.Vividhalaya vaadya shiromani, from NDA

2.Bharatha Laya nipuna, from Bharatham Academy of Fine arts

Mohanraj Jayaraman is a Disciple of Padmabhushan Dr. T.V.Gopalakrishnan & Kalaimamani Thiruvarur Swaminathan.

He has a Diploma, 'Vadiyakalaimani' from The Tamilnadu Music college, Chennai and Bachelor's Degree in Indian Music, from the University of Madras. Recipient of Gold Medal from The Tamilnadu Music College for his outstanding performance.

TITLES RECEIVED

Kuzhal Isai Nadamani, Kuzhal Isai Vendhan

Performed in various Government programs like Tamil Isai Vizha, Mahapalipuram Festival, Kanchi Mutt, Chidambaram Natarajar Temple, Mantralayam, Vellore Golden Temple, Chinmaya Mission Narayana Guru Mutt etc. Has given various performances in TV Shows, solo performances and dance arangetrams in India and abroad.

K. P. Nandini, a disciple of Smt. Lalitha Raghavan for violin and Ranjani Gayatri for vocal, is an ' A' grade artist of AIR for both violin and vocal. She is also a Central government scholarship holder for both. She has been bestowed the title of ' Sathya Gana Sunadha Sundaram'  and Nadha Rathna' for the year 2022 and was the title winner of the carnatic reality show ' Swarna Sangeetham' and won the ' Golden voice of the season for the year 2013.

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She has many titles and awards to her credit. To name a few,  YUVA KALA BHARATHI/ The MS SUBBULAKSHMI fellowship in music'/'Bala kala rathna' /'Kalaimani' /Gaana Saraswathi' ' /Vishnu Digambar paluskar award /and The TIMES Thyagaraja' award to name a few.She has had the privilege of performing before the then president of India ' Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and world renowned music conductor Maestro Zubin Mehta. She has also performed before the princess of Spain and has toured US and Europe extensively for performances in both capacities.