Academy of Creative Arts founded by Dr. Java Joshi hosted its student’s annual art show and recitals on June 14 from 3-5pm… Students from the ages of 4 to 71 shared their creative and performing art skills… The whole Academy was transformed into a colorful art gallery where over 350 visitors enjoyed art from over 60+ art students.

The art show and student recital program was conducted in two segments… Program started with the art show followed by the performance segment and then the recognition segment. Meena Kothandaraman, a well-known Lexington figure and an Academy student mom emceed and conducted the entire show. To Meena’s credit she managed such a huge crowd of 100+ students and parents very effectively and patiently starting and ending the performance and recognition segments on time without any hitches...

During the performance segment, after 45 minutes of open art gallery, students learning performing arts tool the stage. The performance segment started with a prayer to the remover of obstacles, Ganesha presented by the 4 year old student Swetha Rajagopalan guided by the Shankar Mahadevan Academy (SMA) Carnatic Vocal instructor Malini Varadarajan. The prayer was then followed by a solid “Gananayaka” song performance by Aryan Deshpande, Arushi Iyer, Shalin Sinha and Yash Mathur with guidance from Grow with Music program instructor Valentino Almeida. The mood changed was quickly changed from singing to dance performance on “Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan” when Anaya Joshi, Angel, Anjani Patel, Aria Nagpal, Diya Patel, Emma Patel, Ira Pokharel, Khushi Patel, Krina Patel, Maitri Patel, Niti Patel, Riya Pokharel and Sonal Setty performed under guidance from ACA Bollywood instructor Shikha Bajpai ably supported Kavita Gohil.

The Bollywood performance was followed by another singing performance by 4 of SMA’s youngest students – the 4 year olds won hearts of the audience by singing a fun song called “Chuppa Chuppi” Aditi Korwarkar, Prayaa Popat, Shivay Dhar and Shreeya Srivastava ably guided by Grow with Music Instructor Malini Varadarajan.

From wonderful singing by little kids, the audiences were taken into the world of classical dance with 2 performances from the Chhandika Kathak students. A pranam – Gayatri Mantra, and invocation to the Divine, together with the foundations of Kathak dance - presented by Anaya Joshi, Nora Kapoor, Kavya Makim, Anya Patel, Aria Parikh, Saloni Parikh, Karina Shah, Amita Shanmuganath, Eesha Soni. This was followed by a dance featuring tatkar footwork, chakkars and compositions, presented by Puja Jhaveri, Ananya Katyal, Ameyaa Kayastha, Suhani Khandelwal, Samya Palawat, Tanishi Patel, Saniya Purohit, Arshia Sharma, Ria Sharma and Sara Vyas. Both these performances were guided by Chhandika Kathak instructor Shefali Jain who called out her fabulous class assistants for their instrumental support in guiding and teaching this semester: Shelley Chhabra, Ilina Shah, Meghma Banerjee and Revati Sankalia.

The next group of performers missed their teacher Parag Joshi as he was recovering through his appendectomy surgery. Parag inspired them to honor the words “the show must go on!”. Anaya Joshi, Arya Parikh, Saloni Parikh and Adwait Patki then presented “Is Saptak Mein” a beautiful song that encompasses all the basics and foundations of learning music.

The crowd was then taken into the world of American dance forms with Academy’s Ball Room instructor David Johnson and his assistant Colleen Troy giving a view into the world of Salsa and Swing Dancing through a wonderful demo of moves of Swing and Salsa.

It is never too late to learn if you are interested in something, this saying was proven correct by the next set of vocalists. The range in age of the group was over 6 decades – but their goal is a common one – to learn vocal music! The oldest member of the group Jigisha Mehta at the age of 71 started learning music and delivered a beautiful rendition of Hindi Film Song “Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Ye” along with Dr. Sandhya Goli and the 12 year old Arya Nagraj.

Finally the performance segment concluded with fast paced and fun Bhangra dance by Sijie Wang and Amolak Kumar who were ably guided by Boston Bhangra instructor and founder Rohit Bhambi.

The performance segment left the audiences in awe and brought smiles and pride on the faces of all the parents and grandparents watching all the students from 4 to 71 perform.

The Academy then went into the recognition segment starting with recognizing the efforts of all their instructors across various different programs: David Johnson (Ball Room), Dhanashree Ramachandran (Yoga), Dipal Anand (Bollywood), Divya Jayanthi (SMA-Carnatic Vocal), Gretchen Hayden (Kathak), Ilina Shah (Kathak), Kavita Gohil (Art), Malini Varadarajan (SMA – Carnatic & GWM), Manisha Trivedi (Henna/Mehndi), Parag Joshi (SMA-Grow with Music), Paresh Motiwala (Public Speaking), Ram Chelakara (Yoga), Richa Doshi (Art), Rohit Bhambi (Bhangra), Shefali Jain (Kathak), Shikha Bajpai (Bollywood), Shiv Verma (Photography), Ujjwal Parikh (SMA – Hindustani Vocal), Valentino Almeida (SMA – Hindi Movie Songs & GWM) and Vinita Deodhar Joshi (Yoga).

Dr. Java Joshi's art program students from the age of 4 to 14 exhibited their art work which ranged from landscapes to still lives to cartoons. It was just amazing to see the Academy transform into a super colorful gallery of art by soo many little artists. Artists that exhibited their work were Aashmi Arkshali, Aditi Korwarkar, Adwait Patki, Amal Balachundhar, Amisha Shanmuganath, Ananya Srinivasan, Anaya Joshi, Anaya Joshi, Angie Leung, Anusha Kumar, Aria Nagpal, Arth Joshi, Atharv Patki, Avni Rathi, Caelyn Nordman, Dia Koul, Isabel Rana, Isha Khanzode, Ishan Narra, Ivy Chatterjee, Madeleine Parks, Maya Aggarwal, Maya Bhandarkar, Mira Chandrakasan, Naveen Kothandaraman, Neeraja Deshpande, Nikhil Jagan, Nishika Karody, Pravar Mukkala, Raghav Shrivastava, Renuka Late, Ria Sharma, Risha Gopal, Rohan Seth, Ruimengde Baoma, Saawani Joshi, Saheli Shah, Sakshi Kaul, Samya Palawat, Sara Vyas, Shalom Denison Merchant, Shipra Kalve, Shivam Purohit, Shreeya Srivastava, Shreya Kanaujia, Shyla Aggarwal, Simran Keswani, Sonal Shetty, Sophia Rani Dalal, Tanya Banerjee, Vidya Sri Yalamanchili and Zoya Deshpande.

All the little artists were recognized for their work with the certificate and gift distribution ceremony by the hands of ACA’s special guest of honor Santhana Krishnan. Santhana Krishnan is the founder of the Asian Art Gallery - New England's first gallery representing both modern and contemporary emerging Asian artists. He values the important role his parents played in exposing him to different cultures and art forms from around the world – so he was there to share that love and encouragement with all the ACA students– the next generation of visual and performing artists!

All the performers were handed their certificates and gifts by the other two guests of honor president of INE Multimedia non-profit company Dr. Manju Sheth and publisher of India New England News Upendra Mishra.

“This is a celebration of our students and we want each student and parents to feel proud of what they have learnt and created… it’s our honor and privilege to provide a platform for all the students and parents to showcase their talent and art to the community – we were so delighted to see parents and families show up in such immense numbers… there was no parking left and no room to stand – we are blessed to have such outstanding support from all our students, their parents/families and our community” said Hetal Joshi the co-founder of Academy of Creative Arts.

"Looking at all the smiling parents & grandparents as they witnessed my little artists and all my ACA students perform, my eyes filled up with tears of joy... there is no better feeling than seeing joy in parents eyes when their child conducts themselves with confidence. I am a parent myself and I know how important it is... I feel blessed to have this opportunity to make a different in these students lives..." said Dr. Java Joshi - Founder of Academy of Creative Arts.

"Me and Hetal  would like to thank all our academy family members for their hard and support for making this event a success - without their support this event would not have been possible... Bhavna Motiwala, Rachna Shah, Sunil Barot, Nimisha Barot, Preetesh Shrivastava, Pratibha Shrivastava, Jharna Madan, Heena Parikh, Iilina Shah, Krunal Sheth, Jharna Madan, Anish Khanzode, Deepali Khanzode, Isha Khanzode, Rucha Londhe, Rahul Joshi, Nilesh Rana, Ajay Jaisingh, Sneh Jaisingh, Vipin Palawat, Uma Saha, Maitri Shah, Leena Pataki, Sounak Chatterjee, Moumita Purkayastha and last but not the least Alok Bhaskar and Malini Varadarajan, who have been the back bone of our Academy from day one. “ said Dr. Java Joshi founder of the Academy of Creative Arts.

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