Profile by radhika gupta

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Bharatnatyam in the Bay A Profile by Radhika Gupta

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shwini Srivatsan was eight years old when she decided she wanted to dance. Srivatsan recalls first being inspired by a girl around her age performing at a talent show: “[The girl] just looked so happy. I remembered going back home and dancing in front of the mirror .

. . I felt so free and happy.” She continues, “For me, it was just that moment of watching someone dance and then coming home and trying it and then being hooked” (A. Srivatsan). She experimented with dance on her own. First, it was just twirling around the room, looking up videos, choreographing her own pieces.

She would attend dance performances then come home and try to replicate the dancer’s movements in the mirror. Eventually, she signed up for formal dance lessons. Srivatsan recalls being drawn to classical dance: “With Bharatnatyam there was just so much. So much music, so much history. I started learning


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