Performance Ensemble

Nrityanjali is deeply committed to the promotion of the traditional art form of Bharatanatyam. Established in 1991, the  Performance Ensemble is actively involved in presenting performances in the Washington DC area at various venues including the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. As an educational institution, we also present world-class artists from India to local audiences.

Ensemble members include:

Shruti Barker

Shruti has been learning Bharatanatyam since she was five years old and has been training under Guru Meena Telikicherla for the past 20 years. She completed her Rangapravesham in 2005. Shruti has also attended workshops conducted by world renowned Bharatanatyam dancers, Gurus V.P Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan, C.V. Chandrashekar, Bragha Bressell, and Srikanth Natarajan. Shruti has participated in several performances in the Metro DC area, including a stage performance in 2007 entitled “Snehayagam” and a stage performance of “Sankhya Vaibhava” in 2014. Shruti traveled with the Nrityanjali Ensemble to perform “Sankhya Vaibhava,” in several cities in India, including in Chennai during the prestigious winter Music and Dance festival. Shruti resides in Washington D.C. and is an attorney at Covington & Burling, LLP.


Vishney Ambalavanar

Vishney has been learning Bharatanatyam from Meena Telikicherla since 1996 and completed her Rangapravesham in 2008. Since then, she has performed as a company dancer in several Nrityanjali ensemble productions, including Arohanam, Ritu Samharam, and Bhakthi Manjari. Through Nrityanjali, Vishney studied in dance workshops conducted by Sri Adyar K. Lakshman, Professor C.V. Chandrashekar, N. Srikanth, and. Smt. Bragha Bessell. While attending the University of Maryland from 2008 to 2012, Vishney captained the competitive classical dance team, Moksha. Professionally, Vishney earned her J.D. at the New York University School of Law in 2015, and currently works at the U.S. Department of Labor’s New York regional office.


Anna Revathy Aryankalayil

Anna Revathy Aryankalayil has been training in Bharatanatyam under Meena Telikicherla for nearly 20 years. She presented her solo debut performance (Rangapravesham) in 2008. Anna became a company dancer with the Nrityanjali Performance Ensemble in 2013 and performed in the 2014 production, “Sankya Vaibhava.” She also toured India with the Ensemble during the 2015 season. She has attended several workshops by visiting artists at Nrityanjali, performed in dance productions, and danced at many cultural showcases, community events, and fundraisers. For four years, she also performed with “Sitara,” Emory University’s fusion dance team. Anna is an attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert LLP.


Kalyani Phansalkar

Kalyani is an avid student of Bharatnatyam at the Nrityanjali Inc. under Guru Meena Telikicherla. She has been learning dance for the past 16 years and completed her Rangapravesam in 2009. She has performed at various local dance venues, including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Kalyani traveled overseas with her guru and ensemble to participate in the production, “Sankhya Vaibhava” in Chennai, Bangalore, and Kerala. Kalyani lives in New York City with her husband and works at a global public relations agency.


Raevathi Ramadorai

Raevathi has been a student of Bharatanatyam for the past 18 years, completing her Rangapravesham in 2011. She has performed in various local cultural showcases, performances, and fundraisers for Nrityanjali, and has attended dance workshops led by noted Bharatanatyam teachers Sri Adyar K. Lakshman and Smt. Bragha Bessel. Raevathi performed in the production Sankhya Vaibhava both locally and in India, traveling to Chennai, Bangalore, and Palakkad. Raevathi graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S in biology and is currently working towards an M.A. in science education. Raevathi works at the Society for Science & the Public, a nonprofit organization in D.C.


Veda Ravishankar

Veda Ravishankar has been a student of Bharatanatyam under the guidance of Meena Telikicherla for the past 12 years, and completed her Rangapravesham in July 2015. She has participated in various Bharatanatyam workshops conducted by Bragha Bessel and N. Srikanth, along with a folk dance workshop by Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and Nandini Mehta.  In 2018, she joined the Nrityanjali Performance Ensemble to dance in the production Bhakti Manjari. Veda is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is expecting to graduate with a B.S. in Bioengineering in May 2018. She plans to attend the George Washington University School of Medicine beginning in Fall 2018 to pursue an M.D.


Poojah Ganesh

Poojah started learning dance from Meena Telikicherla, who has been instrumental in her journey in dance. She presented her Rangapravesham in 2017 in Bangalore, India. Since then, she participated in community events and fundraiser shows for charity. She has participated in dance productions In the Beginning and Meghadoot at Wolf Trap. She attended Abhinaya workshop at Nrityanjali by Bragha Bessell and music workshop by Sudha Suri Raghuram. She has also been learning Carnatic music from Sreyas Narayanun. She recently won the Miss India DC title in 2017. Poojah is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at Georgetown University. Her other interests include poetry and storytelling.