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Notable Alumni
Ever since the seventies, Asavari, under the dedicated guidance and teaching from legendary, Padmashri Guru Shovana Narayan, several great dancers have emerged from its portals.
Most of them have made their own indelible mark and created their own space in the professional field of dance and Kathak – as a performer, choreographer and teacher. The important aspect of Guru Shovana’s training is that each dancer is taught to become soloists. At the same time, each dancer is well grounded in various aspects of choreography, handling of themes, ideas, music, text that are its important limbs. They are equipped not only as artistes per se but as a wholesome individual with an open and reasoning mind.
Since there are several in the field, only few names are given below:
Kartika Singh started her mentoring from Guru Shovana Narayan as a mere toddler, when accompanying her elder sister to the dance classes. Today she is an acclaimed Kathak soloist and choreographer, who is making waves in the field of dance. Gifted with a probing mind, her interpretations of traditional themes, multi-dance style collaborative works and her enthralling solo recitals. She is a recipient of several awards and is a film maker of repute.
Shivani Varma who learnt for 14/15 years from Guru Shovana Narayan and had already started making her name as a soloist even before 2015/16. Today she is making waves in the field as one of the most popular dancers of today with many ‘followers’. She has collaborated with leading personalities in the world of films, fashion events and is a regular face as the leading dancer in Muzaffar Ali productions.
Mrinalini (USA) has been groomed by Guru Shovana Narayan since she was 6 years old and has emerged as a great innovative, expressive dancer and actress who won accolades for her debut film Aavartan. Her innovative and expressive renditions have wowed many and her interpretive dance performance set to a poem narrated by Kuldeep Mishra went viral during the Corona virus lockdown. She has been hailed as a very “creative artiste and a mesmerizing performer”.
Sanchita Abrol (Australia) based in Melbourne, has been a disciple of Guru Shovana Narayan since the age of ten. Every weekend saw her religiously coming to Delhi from Rohtak to receive training from Guru Shovana. Her dedication and ‘sadhna’ has seen her becoming an acclaimed Kathak artiste with deep roots in her tradition for she was the first who carried out research in Dogri language and Indian classical dance interpretations that she presented in Kathak to very wide appreciation. She is recognized as India's Dancing Queen for translating ancient texts through dance. Sanchita today is a recognised venerated figure asan international Kathak exponent and cultural entrepreneur and is very successfully a full-fledged dance academy in Melbourne.
Anupama Srivastava (USA, Bay Area) is a dancer, performer, teacher, and choreographer and is also the Founder and Artistic Director of InSyncKathak Dance School based in Fremont, California. In the nine years since its inception, InSyncKathak Dance School has over 100 students, 150 performances and 50 awards to its credit. In the true spirit of the Guru-Shishya Parampara, students are given rigorous training in all aspects of the Lucknow Gharana style of traditional classical Kathak: nritta, nritya and natya. Her choreographic works have been presented at dance festivals and concerts in the US and Canada including San Francisco Movement Arts Festival, PUSH fest, Toronto International Youth Dance Festival, and several Bay Area organizations. Under her tutelage, Reva Srivastava became a National YoungArts Finalist Winner in the World Dance category for 2022, a feat which was repeated in 2023.
Kristina Luna Dolinina (Lithuania), born a Lithuanian, is an Indian at heart. Her deep love for Kathak is visible in her depth of emotions in abhinaya where she lives and breathes the character and in her mastery over the rhythmic technical brilliance of the dance style. Her inter-disciplinary works have been greatly hailed. In addition to teaching Hindi in Vilnius University, she has been successfully training several Lithuanians in the art of Kathak at her academy, the Natya Devi Dance Centre, Lithuania.
Ragini Madan (UK) trained under Guru Shovana for over 12 years and today is a recognised name in the field of Kathak. Her style of presentation consists of a harmonious blend of Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas that she has imbibed from her guru. Based in the UK, she performs around the globe and is also imparting training to members of the younger generation based in the UK.
Madhura Phatak (Pune) learnt from Guru Shovana for over 14 years. Endowed with a beautiful melodious voice, depth of expression, rhythmic brilliance not only in execution but also in the ‘upaj’ ang, Madhura is known to use Kathak as a tool to delve into her connection with the universe and use it as her language of self-expression.
Atreyee Roy (Mumbai) started learning from Guru Shovana when she was only four years old. She received rigorous training under the direct tutelage of her guru, who mentored her and guided her that saw her emerge as a brilliant dancer whose performances received critical applause from critics, connoisseurs alike. Her move to Mumbai over 17/18 years ago, saw her being lost to the corporate world for some time but she made a remarkable comeback to the world of Kathak some 5 years ago, proving that the basic sound training was not lost.
