Vocalist || Kathak Dancer || Engineer

​Pooja has been training in Kathak over the last 15 years under Gurus Smt. Nirupama Rajendra and Shri T.D. Rajendra in Bangalore, India. She has had the privilege of performing with Abhinava Dance Company at the prestigious Mysore Dasara, Bangalore International Film Festival, ZEE5 Awards and Alvas NudiSiri to name a few and has also had the opportunity to be a part of their esteemed productions. She has also learnt Karanas, a special movement vocabulary of Natyashastra from her Guru Smt. Nirupama. She has  attended Kathak workshops of legendary Gurus like Padma Bhushan Kumudini Lakhiaji and Pandit Birju Maharajji organized by Abhinava Dance Company. On moving to the US, she is practicing and performing under the guidance of Guru Parul Shah and Guru Smt.Nirmala Madhava(Pampa) also working as a collaborative artist with other dance companies on select projects/productions(Navatman in New York, Noorani Dance Company in the bay area, Naatak in the bay area, Arpan in Seattle). She has rendered solo recitals for various organizations at New York, Seattle, New Jersey, Boston, Bay Area, Chicago and Los Angeles, California. Pooja was an artist in residence for the prestigious Seattle Theater Group in 2024 where she presented her original work at the Moore Theater. She premiered her original work as a part of the YUVA Festival 2023 at Houston and presented the work as a soloist at Yuva Bharati, California(Nov 2023). This was very well received by the audience as it offered a fresh take on a script from Subhashita-Ratna-Bhandagarah addressing women empowerment. She had the opportunity to collaborate with 8 chosen artists across the US to put on a full length production that got featured/reviewed on Narthaki. She has also has the opportunity to present her work at the New York Kathak Festival in June 2024.She was a part of Navatman’s Mahabharata (2021) that has been selected for film festivals. She recently had the opportunity to tour with the Abhinava Dance company this year across 11 cities in the US and Canada with their signature production that received standing ovation across all the 11 cities. Pooja is also an accomplished vocalist, and has studied Carnatic Music for over 20 years under the guidance of Smt Padma Srinivasan, Shri. Narahari Dixit and Para. Manjunath. She has had the opportunity to render full-fledged Carnatic and light music concerts at prestigious festivals in India and the US such as Ramaseva Mandali(Fort High School), Shri Ramanavami Festival, Aiyyappa temple, Jayarama Seva Mandali, AKKA, SoCal Kannada Sangha, Ithihasa, VAH, LOTUS,SR Fine Arts to name a few. She has a degree in Electrical Engineering, the field in which she works full-time.