ABOUT
Kiruthika Rathanaswami is an Indian classical dancer and instructor in the bharata natyam style of dance.
She has been under the guidance and mentorship of Jai Govinda, founder and past Artistic Director of Mandala Arts and Culture in Vancouver for the past 28 years. Most recently in March 2025, she took on the role as the new Artistic Director of Mandala Arts and Culture Society continuing Jai Govinda's legacy and Mandala's vision of the organization.
She completed her bharata natyam arangetram (graduation) at the Jai Govinda Dance Academy in 2004 and since then has been a part of many of Mandala's professional productions and presentations as a soloist, and ensemble. She currently teaches group classes at Mandala Arts. She has also been company dancer (2019-2022) and Associate Artist (2022-2024) for Toronto based dance company Nova Dance.
As a soloist she has performed extensively in Vancouver, BC and cities such as Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Santa Barbara, California and Baltimore, Maryland. Some of those notable festivals include Canada Dance Festival, Gait to the Spirit Festival, Horizon Series, Feats Festival, HH11 Dance Festival, Nextfest, Baltimore Dance Invitational and New Works Dance All Sorts, Solo: A Festival of Dance and Expanse Festival. Kiruthika premiered three new bharata nayam margams in 2019 (Vancouver/Edmonton), 2015 (Vancouver) and 2013 (Vancouver) choreographed by Jai Govinda, Bragha. She has also danced in other company works such as Nova Dance's Svāhā that premiered in Toronto (September 2022) and Vancouver (July 2023), Sujit Vaidya's Breath in the Fragrance ( Queer Arts Festival 2023 & VIDF 2025) and Shakti Dance/Anusha Fernando's Sky Dancers (2024).
As a choreographer she has co-lead Nova Dance’s Svāhā Body Choir in Vancouver (2023) and worked with Dance Xtreme Students from Victoria High School in Edmonton to choreograph a work titled “Linked Expressions” for Nextfest (2020) curated by Good Women Dance Collective.
Kiruthika has taught group and private classes for workshops, festivals and schools/institutions such as Mandala Arts, Nova Dance’s Svāhā Body Choir Vancouver Rehearsal Lead, Sattvika Danse (Montreal), HH11 Dance Festival Master Class Series (University of California, Santa Barbarba), Annual Grande Prairie Children’s Festival (Grande Prairie) and SFU Dance Department (Vancouver).
In 2010 she received the Arts Fellowship from the Shastri Indo- Canadian Institute and trained with Gurus B. Bhanumati and Sheela Chandrashekar of Nrityakalamandiram in Bangalore, India. She was also featured as the lead dancer in the documentary film "The Great Night of Shiva" (2011) which was broadcast nationally on Vision TV, Canada. In the summer of 2015, Kiruthika was invited to speak as panelist at a National Dance Symposium "Beyond Boundaries - Imagining a New Future for South Asian Dance in Canada" by Sampradaya Dance Creations in Mississauga, Ontario. Kiruthika is the recipient of the 2012 City of Vancouver "The Mayor's Arts Award" for emerging artist in Dance and the 2016 Dancing Damsel Women Achiever Award for the Performing Arts.
Kiruthika recently premiered her new production Shiva (He) - Shakti (Her) with co-dancer Malavika Santhosh and choreographed by Jai Govinda in December 2024 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.
TEACHING
Kiruthika teaches bharata natyam classes at Mandala Arts & Culture Society.
For more information about Fall 2025/Winter 2026 Registration click here
Location: Scotiabank Dance Centre (Granville & Davie).
She has been supported by Edmonton Arts Council, Mandala Arts & Culture Society, & Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, BC Arts Council and the Dance Centre.