Kritya: An Evening of Classical Indian Dance & Music

Kritya Ensemble is a dance/music ensemble where the 2500+ year old Carnatic music tradition and 500+ year old Kuchipudi dance tradition from South India come together to tell ancient stories rooted in spirituality and social themes to address pressing concerns of the present day.

We consistently operate at the intersection of tradition and the avant garde, this lineup presents an opportunity for us to expand and evolve our original repertoire as a budding ensemble. We will be presenting original pieces composed/choreographed and arranged by Kritya Ensemble.

Yamini Kalluri - Kuchipudi Dancer

Yamini Kalluri is a world-class professional Kuchipudi dancer based in New York City where she teaches and performs full time. She is the founder and director of the Kritya School of Dance, the first school of its kind that incorporates nuances from ballet and modern dance to bring about a new age of Kuchipudi which is more relevant to a newer and global generation. Yamini sees Kritya as a budding conservatory and incubatory for challenging experimentation and also as a place for dancers to immerse themselves to find their truest form of expression.

Rohith Jayaraman - Carnatic Vocalist

Born and raised in San Jose, California, Rohith Jayaraman is a vocalist, composer, and educator known for his soulful voice, speed, precision, and infectious energy. Rohith was trained in Carnatic music under his mother and guru, Asha Ramesh, a disciple of D.K. Jayaraman. For the last 10 years, he has been exploring the world of crossover music, working with collaborators from all around the world in areas as diverse as jazz, pop, Arabic music, metal, Gnawa, folk, electronica, and more. Rohith has shared the stage with internationally acclaimed and award-winning artists such as A.R. Rahman and Zakir Hussain. Outside the performance space, Rohith has scored short films, written for dance, and directed several music videos. A proud alumni of Berklee College of Music, Rohith is currently the Associate Director of Berklee India Exchange (BIX).

Harsha Mandayam Bharathi - Mridangam (Percussion)

Harsha is from Chennai and has been learning the mridangam since the age of 4. He began learning from Vid. Poongulam Sri Subramanian and is currently receiving advanced lessons from Dr. Patri Satish Kumar. He has been performing in concerts for the past 12 years. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at The Ohio State University."

Vivek Ramanan - Nattuvangam
Vivek Ramanan is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer and South Indian percussionist of mridangam. He had his foundational training in dance under Smt. Madhusri Sethuraman and Smt. Vidhya Subramanian, and in mridangam under Sri Ramesh Srinivasan. Vivek is also an acclaimed konnakol artist and previously was an IndianRaga creative director from 2016-2017, during which he created popular video productions of South Asian art on social media. Currently undergoing advanced training with Dr. Apoorva Jayaraman, Vivek is an experienced solo performer and choreographer, has co-created stage productions on new thematic ideas using the Bharatanatyam grammar, and continues to accompany and create music for dance performances.

Laya Raghav - Violin
Laya is a violin artist based out of Cleveland, OH. She is a disciple of Vidushi. Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi from whom she learns the art of Indian classical Carnatic music. Laya has performed several in-person and virtual solo violin/vocal concerts as well as accompanied on the violin for many vocal concerts and dance performances. Laya has also won several prizes in violin, vocal and Harikatha categories at prestigious venues such as Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, Chicago Thyagaraja Utsavam and many other national and international performing/fine arts platforms. Laya, who is a high school sophomore is also a passionate Bharathanatyam dancer in addition to pursuing Western classical violin with immense enthusiasm.