About Selvi
Selvi is the Director and Founder of Indian-Fusion Dance Academy. She founded IFDA in October of 2006. Since then the school has grown rapidly and has a present enrollment of 140 students.Dance education and training:
Selvi learnt Bharathanatiyam for over 8 years and graduated with honors from the prestigious Kalaikaviri School of Fine Arts, affiliated with Bharathidasan University in Trichy, India.
Kalaikaviri is based on the Kalashetra style of Bharathanatiyam and she was taught by well known gurus from Kalakshetra. Her gurus included Shri V. P. Dhananjayan and Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan, Sri. Narasimha Chary and Smt. Vijaya Mugundan among others. She learnt Bharathanatiyam along with extensive theory. She learnt Mohiniattam, a classical dance from Kerala. She learnt folk dances of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan. The specific folk dances include Kummi, Kolattam, Poikaal Kuthirai, Bhangra, Dandia/Garba and Rajasthani folk
After moving to the US she continued to learn from Smt. Sundara Swaminathan and Smt.Sugantha Iyer.
Performances and Choreography - India and Europe:
While still a student she was one of the six selected to represent Kalaikaviri in its performances all over India and Europe. She traveled 6 nations in Europe including Austria, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Vatican. The highlight of her Europe trip was when her troupe was requested to perform before his excellency, Pope John Paul II.
In India she performed in inter-college and inter-university competitions winning several honors.
Performances and Choreography - US
After moving to the US she was the cultural director of Lehigh Valley Indian Association. She choreographed and performed on various occasions. One of her choreographies that attained critical acclaim by the Lehigh Valley mainstrean community was when she choreographed a Indian-fusion dance drama called 'A Dancer's Dream'. The dance drama potrayed a fusion of Indian classical including Odissi, Kathak and Bharthanatiyam with western Jazz/hip hop. The climax of the performance was when the dancers dance their respective dance styles to Billy Joel's 'We didn't start the fire'.
In 1997 her family moved to California. She has since then been involved in an Organization called Jeena which is a support organization for families who have special need children. She is a board member there and has choreographed for children with special needs. She has also choreographed and performed for Jeena's awareness event called Jeena Yahaan for the past 4 years.
She has also choreographed for the Tamil Catholic Community in the Bay Area for various celebrations representing the Indian Catholic Community.
About Lavanya
Lavanya will be teaching dance along with Selvi starting Fall 2008Dance education and training:
Lavanya Gopal is a disciple of Smt Rukmini Srinivasan and Smt Padmini Ravi. She started learning Bharathanatyam from a tender age of seven. She was one of the first disciples of Smt Rukmini Srinivasan and has been trained under her for almost 8 years in the widely practiced Tanjavur and Mysore style. She also continued her dance lessons from Smt Padmini Ravi for almost four years. She has completed dance exams under the guidance of Smt Rukmini Srinivasan and has innumerable performances to her credit.Performances and Choreography
Some of her performances include "Rasa Leela Tarangini", in which she played the main role, Bhaktha Prahalada, Dashavatharam, Srinivasa kalyanam, etc. She won the first prize for an intercollegiate Bharathanatyam competition held from all over Karnataka. Lavanya is a Post Graduate in Marketing Management and also has a masters degree in Sanskrit. She has also learnt carnatic music for eight years under the guidance of her aunt and Guru Smt Vijayavalli Rajagopalan.
Her incredible ackground/traininbg, her passion to work with children and her most pleasing nature has made her to be the right choice to join the faculty at IFDA.
About Gayathri
Carnatic music classes starting Fall 2008 will be taught by Ms. Gayathri Ganapati
Music education and training:
15+ years of training in Carnatic music
Started initial training under Rama Ravi (student of D.K.Jayaraman) in Calcutta, Continued with Sankaramurthy of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bangalore
Advanced/Intensive training under Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam (reknowned violinist and sister of Lalgudi Jayaraman) in Chennai
Advanced/Intensive/Voice training under Sita Rajan (Student of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer)
Performances And Honors:
Won First (Tambura) prize in the Indian Fine Arts Competition in 1993 and the opportunity to perform for the next season. Won Best Vocalist in the Indian Fine Arts concerts in 1994 for that level.
Selected to represent Chennai in National All India Radio competitions in 1993 for both Classical and Semi-classical categories.
Performed in the Spirit of Youth Concert Series in Music academy in 1994.
Performed for Kapali Fine Arts at Sastri Hall in 1995.
Performed for All India Radio as a B Grade artist till
1997.
Featured in the Indian Express newspaper as the
Personality of the Week in August 1993.