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Dancers
 Name: Ria
Dutta
Year: POL/2008
Hometown: Cary, NC
Ria started BN for the same reason as most other Indian girls: she knew it would
be a good way to impress future in-laws! Young Ria started at the wee age of
only 6, and completed her Arangetram at age of 16 under Guru Smt. Sridevi
Jagannath. While she has cherished the knowledge and artistry that BN have
taught her, her most valuable rewards have definitely have been the "phriends"
she has made along the way and she would like to dedicate this year's show to
them (especially to Nitya and her roommates for letting Ria take over their
room this year). Oh yeah...She also thanks her parents for all their support
and especially her mom for still doing her hair.
 Name:
Arthi Ramachandran
Year: COS/2008
Hometown:
Chennai, India; Baltimore, MD
Arthi started learning Bharatanatyam at the age of five under the tutelage
of Smt. Kamala Narayan. She continued her training in Chennai in the
Vazhuvoor style of dance. She performed her Arangetram in the summer of
2001. She was ecstatic to find a classical dance troupe at Princeton and
loves being a part of Kalaa. She thanks her fellow troupe members, her
parents, her roommates and her friends for always being there for her. To all the Kalaa girls : I'm going to miss all of you next year!
 Name: Amruta
Sarma
Year: CEE/2008
Hometown: Wilmington,
NC
Co-President Emeritus
Amruta started conventional American styles of dance at age 4, and then
graduated to the intricacies of Bharatanatyam at the age of 8. She is
thankful that she was able to find a Bharatanatyam teacher in her small
hometown of Wilmington, NC. A Civil Engineering major, Amruta can often
be seen trekking back and forth between the rest of the world, and the E-Quad.
Aside from dancing, she enjoys snow (a rarity in the South), reading,
swimming, and doing really long problem sets.
 Name:
Stephanie Chen
Year: COS/2009
Hometown:
Marlboro, NJ
Stephanie started actually learning Bharatha Natyam at the age of 19, with
minimal experience before that. She's been doing ballet since the age of 6,
and has attended many summer intensive programs in that. Now she dances
ballet and modern, while pursuing a certificate in dance. Other types of
dance she has tried/is trying are Irish step dance, Middle eastern, Flamenco,
Kathak, African, tap, breaking, and of course a night on the Street.
 Name: Alice
Easton
Year: /2009
Hometown: Chicago,
IL
Co-President
Alice started taking Bharata Natyam classes through an after-school
program when she was eight. At eleven, she began learning from Hema
Rajagopalan after reading an article about her dance school in the
Chicago Tribune.
 Name:
Aditi Eleswarapu
Year: HIS/2009
Hometown: East
Brunswick, NJ
Co-President
Aditi learned Bharathanatyam for eight years under Ramya Ramnarayan of the
Nrithyanjali Institute of Dance and completed her Arangetram in the fall of
2002. She also performed at the Jefferson Center in Virginia in the summer of
2003. Aditi loves dancing with Kalaa here at Princeton, especially when she is
cast as the villain in its productions!
 Name:
Shriya Raghavan
Year: ORFE/2009
Hometown:
Cincinnati, OH
Shriya has been learning Bharatanatyam for five years under Guru Smt.
Akila Sankar, niece and disciple of Guru Padmashri Smt. Chitra Visweswaran.
She performed her arangetram in June 2005. Shriya loves all types of music
and also plays the violin. She is looking forward to being a part of Kalaa
during her time here at Princeton!
 Name:
Kalyani Parthasarathy
Year: /2010
Hometown:
Kalyani stated learning Bharathanatyam under Smt. Ramya Ramnarayan at the age
of 6. She then continued under various other teachers, including Smt. Jothi
Raghavan, Smt. Charu Narasimhan, and Smt. Sheela Ramanath. Other than dance,
she loves violin, Spanish, economics, and reading, not in that order. In this
past summer, Kalyani had the opportunity to begin learning Kuchipudi, a related
style of Indian dance, from Smt. Anuradha Nehru, and hopes to continue learning
both styles.
 Name:
Shivani Radhakrishnan
Year: /2011
Hometown:
Shivani started learning Bharat Natyam in 3rd grade under the guidance of Padmini. Although her involvement with dance has been somewhat sporadic, she's very enthusiastic about having a group like Kalaa here on campus to keep her involved. Outside of dance, Shivani enjoys philosophy, tea, and black and white movies.
 Name:
Monisha Jayakumar
Year: GS/2009
Hometown:
Monisha has been dancing since she was 5 years old. Her passion for bharatnatyam
was sparked under Smt. Vasantha Vaikunth in Muscat, Oman, continued with Professor
M. Krishnamurthy in Bangalore, India and evolved with Gayatri Devi in New York.
Monisha kicked and screamed her way into Kalaa, despite being a "grad" student.
She is still waiting on privileges such as being on their website and being
sent emails along with the others, instead of one day late forwards. Despite
all the abuse - she loves having a dancer family in Princeton!
Alumni
 Name:
Nitya Prabhakar
Year: PSY/2006
Hometown:
Bloomfield Hills, MI
A Psychology major pursuing a Neuroscience Certificate, Nitya began
Bharathanatyam at the age of 4. Dancing fairly consistenly over the
next thirteen years, she performed her Arangetram at the age of 17 under
Guru Smt. Devika Raghavan at home in Michigan. She is so happy to have been
a part of Kalaa during her college career, because it has been a great
opportunity to share her training with talented dancers, enhance
her own skills with their guidance, and also expose the Princeton
community to the beautiful Indian classical dance forms. Though she is sad
to see college end, after graduation next semester, she will be heading
off to medical school.
 Name:
Aditi Shrivastava
Year: ELE/2006
Hometown:
Kuwait
Aditi has studied Kathak for two years under Mrs. Ghosh in the Jaipur
Gharana style in Kuwait, and is proud to be part from Kalaa since its
inception. As the only Kathak dancer for two years, she gave the troup a
nice North Indian touch. She has now been joined by Dr. Mekhala Natavar,
and is more than ecstatic to have her as a partner, a new teacher, and a
loving buddy. Aditi is an Electrical Engineering major, but has manages to
keep her love for dance alive by also learning Belly Dancing and
Modern Dance here at Princeton.
 Name:
Meera Krishnan
Year: ORFE/2007
Hometown:
Bloomington, IN
Meera is a junior majoring in Operations Research and Financial Engineering.
She learned Bharathanatyam for 11 years before coming to Princeton, and she
performed her Arangetram in the fall of 1999. She learned the Vazhuvoor
style of Bharathanatyam from her teacher Ramya Ramnarayan. Meera was
excited to learn that she could continue dance at Princeton and to this
day considers it the ultimate stress reliever. This year, she's had fun
being married to Nitya, emailing Uma 24/7, and being the only hyper one
during Thillana practice. To all the Kalaa girls, I love you madly and
cannot live without you.
 Name:
Uma Tadepalli
Year: MUS/2007
Hometown: Durham,
NC
Uma is a junior in the music department and is pursuing a Spanish Certificate.
She started Bharatha Natyam classes when she was 4, performed her Arangetram
at age 11 and began Kuchipudi training after that. In 2003, she got to
perform Kuchipudi at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as a P
residential Scholar in the Arts. This past summer, she learned Kathak
for a month in Jaipur, Rajasthan on a Martin Dale scholarship. Next
semester, she'll be in Barcelona and will really, really miss Kalaa.
 Name:
Preethi Ramchand
Year: HIS/2007
Hometown:
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