Jiva Dance

Maya Deyssenroth started her formal training in Bharatanatyam in 2007 under the tutelage of Sonali Skandan. While continuing her studies with Sonali, Maya has also participated in workshops conducted by Prof. CV Chandrasekhar, Smt. Manjari Chandrasekhar, Smt. Priyadarshini Govind and Smt. Bragha Bessell.  Performances as part of past Jiva Performing Arts productions include Manhattanville Marymount College, 92Y Fridays at noon series Fridays Retro, New York International Fringe Festival, Living Dance Festival, Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance, Sun to Stars Festival of Music, Dance & Culture, Elmira College, Fashion Institute of Technology and NBC’s Red Nose Danceathon.  Maya is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Aishwarya Madhav is a professionally trained Indian classical dancer, with expertise in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. She is trained under Rema Madhu, and has further advanced her training under N Srikanth. She has performed in more than 60 venues across India and US.

Aishwarya Sriram as been studying and performing Bharatanatyam for the past 20 years. She initially trained under Mrs. Uma Chetty of Apsaras Arts in Virginia, and later pursued advanced training under Mrs. Padmarani Rasiah Cantu and the Dhananjayans of Chennai. She has performed in venues in the US and India including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, University of Virginia, University of Richmond, Good Morning America, Narada Gana Sabha, Lamakaan, and Seva Sadan. Aishwarya has also studied modern dance for several years, and was a dance minor at the University of Virginia. As an undergraduate, she was 1 of 2 students to receive the Harrison Institute Arts Award. Aishwarya has been dancing with Jiva Dance in New York City for the past few years.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Amrita Doshi is a Bharata Natyam dancer pursuing dance, design, and production in New York. She has trained in Bharata Natyam with Guru Viji Prakash and Mythili Prakash and has continued to dance nationally and internationally with the Shakti Dance Company, Sonali Skandan’s Jiva Dance, and Preeti Vausdevan’s Thresh Dance Co.. Most recently, she performed in the 2019 Drive East festival with The Four Horsemen, and prior to that, she toured in Los Angeles and Singapore for Mythili and Aditya Prakash’s production, Mara.

Komala Kumari began her Bharatanatyam dance journey at the tender age of three under the guidance of her sister, Anapayini Jakupko. Since then, she has received years of rigorous training in Chennai, South India under her Guru, Srimati Indira Kadambi. Kumari taught and performed with the Bhakti Kalalayam dance academy in Florida for ten years before moving to New York where she she freelances and teaches dance.  Kumari has performed extensively on tours across Canada and the US as well as Mexico, Panama, England, Poland and India. Kumari is the 2016 recipient of the Vazhavoor Ramaiah Pillai Grand Prize from the Cleveland Tyagaraja Bharatanatyam Competition. Kumari dances because it is not only her passion, but it is her expression of devotion and a profound spiritual offering.

Varsha Radhakrishnan is a professionally trained Bharatanatyam dancer of 23 years, and has studied extensively with Smt. Divya Shiva Sundar, Smt. Shobana Bhalchandra, and Smt. Sujatha Rajendran of the Kalakshetra aesthetic. With an upbringing in Kuwait, rigorous dance training in Chennai, and professional pursuits in the UK and US, she is intrigued by multicultural perspectives on art. Distilling the essence of a movement and Abhinaya has helped her to connect to diverse audiences across India, Kuwait, and the US. In NYC alone she has performed in multiple dance productions with Aalokam dance company, and is a new member of Jiva Dance.