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, Artistic Director of Mandala Arts and Culture in Vancouver for the past 27 years.  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 also teaches beginner classes at the Academy. In 2019, she joined Nova Dance (Toronto) as a company dancer and in 2023 as a Associate Artist. She was recently in Nova Bhattacharya's new work Svāhā that was premiered in Toronto (September 2022) and Vancouver (July 2023).

Although she has performed extensively in Vancouver, she has also been presented in Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, 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. 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 is currently working with dancer Malavika Santhosh and choreographer Jai Govinda on exploring how her many years of solo practice and performance are translated on two dancing bodies. She is curious to see how the physical space, energy, movement patterns and emotions can emerge within and between two dancers. This will feature a full length presentation in 2024.

 

She has been supported by Edmonton Arts Council, Mandala Arts & Culture Society, & Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, BC Arts Council and the Dance Centre.