Welcome to A QISSAA with Ishika, Quintessential and Inspiring Stories of South Asian Artists!
My guest today is Tharini Shanmugarajah, a professional Bharatanatyam dancer, model, assistant artistic director, and make-up artist. She has trained in the Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam under her mother and guru Smt. Kalyani Shanmugarajah, Sheejith Krishna of the Sahrdaya Foundation in Chennai, and Smt. Bragha Bessell for Abhinaya or expression. Tharini also studied Carnatic music under Smt. Sankari Senthilkumar for many years as well as ballet. She received her B.S. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in dance from California State University Northridge in 2013. Some of her incredible performance highlights include Spirit of Youth Festival at the Music Academy, Madras in 2012, MARA, at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, duets with Sheejith Krishna in Los Angeles, Lancaster, Baltimore and Toronto; “Gopala Ratnam,” at Balamandir German Hall in Chennai, The Evolution of Natya at Kalapeetham, and Don Quixote, at the Music Academy, Madras, Canada, and Kennedy Center. Tharini is the assistant artistic director of the Kalapeetham Dance Company since 2005, and the dance company has raised over $75,000 for various non-profit organizations, including $10,000 for Doctors without Borders. She has also collaborated with the Banyan Institute for Mental Health and Rehabilitation and is actively involved in the non-profit arts organization Kalālayam, which she co-founded in 2014. Since 2006, she has taught multiple students at Kalapeetham, one of them finishing her Arangetram in 2017. Tharini is also a skilled make-up artist, working for several years with the cosmetics company, Bobbi Brown. Tharini has been a model and brand representative for ZIBA and DRYBAR.
https://kalapeetham.com/assistant-art...
