Massachusetts Students excel at the Cleveland Aradhana Dance Festival, 2023

 After a three year long hiatus, since 2019, due to the pandemic, Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana opened with renewed vigor this year (2023). 

In a first of its kind experiment, the Cleveland Aradhana Committee successfully expanded its education series, Sustaining Sampradaya, to dance as well. They auditioned and selected 12 dancers from across the US, who trained under the keen guidance of many stalwart dancers and dance Gurus from India since November 2022. These 12 dancers performed a full margam presentation learning various traditional dance pieces in the different authentic styles or banis of Bharatanatyam in a first ever dance program called Sustaining Sampradayam Bharatanatyam on April 14th, 2023 at the Festival. Divya Rajan and Sharanya Baradwaj, both students of Smt. Sunanda Narayanan, were selected to train and perform under this unique new program.

 Also, continuing tradition, the Festival hosted Bharatanatyam competitions on the last two days. Massachusetts teens Ananya Magesh (student of Smt. Aishwarya Balasubramanian), and Sharanya Baradwaj and Divya Rajan (both students of Smt. Sunanda Narayanan) won multiple prizes across multiple categories in the Solo Bharatanatyam Competitions.

 A brief introduction to the winners:

 Ananya Magesh:

Ananya Magesh has been learning Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of guru Smt. Aishwarya Balasubramanian of Arpanam School of Bharatanatyam from the age of 6.

 Locally, Ananya won first place in 2022 and second place this year(2023) at the New England Malayalee Association (NEMA) solo classical dance competitions. 

She won third place in the Invocation category (age group 9-11) at the prestigious Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana dance competitions 2023.

 Now age 11, Ananya is a passionate and dedicated dancer. With the blessings of the Almighty, her guru, parents, family & friends, this year she will be making her debut stage performance - Arangetram on August 12, 2023. 

 In addition to dance, Ananya also learns Carnatic music from Smt. Tara Anand of Framingham, MA. A fifth grader at Gates Elementary School in Acton, MA, Ananya enjoys listening to music, reading books, singing, exploring different art techniques during her free time. 

 Ananya is extremely thankful to her guru, Smt. Aishwarya Balasubramanian for her valuable guidance and training, and she looks forward to learning more from her in the future.

 Sharanya Baradwaj: 

A recent Bharatanatyam debutante, Sharanya Baradwaj, is a student of Smt. Sunanda Narayanan of Thillai Fine Arts Academy in Newton MA. In her first foray into the Bharatanatyam competitions scene, Sharanya secured the THIRD place in the local New England Malayalee Association (NEMA) Solo dance competitions on April 2nd, 2023. And soon followed it up with the below prizes at the esteemed Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana 2023 Solo Dance competitions: 

(1) Keertanam (age group 15-16) SECOND Prize and 
(2) Varnam (age group 15-19) Special Mention.

 Sharanya, now 16 years of age, started learning Bharatanatyam with Smt. Sunanda Narayanan at age 12. A talented, hardworking and committed dancer, she constantly looks for opportunities to dance. Apart from featuring in this year's first ever Sustaining Sampradayam dance program at Cleveland, Sharanya has also performed in the full margam thematic dance presentation 'Akshaya' (Everlasting - Tradition Alive and Onwards), choreographed by Smt. Sunanda Narayanan, presented on August 6th, 2022 in Lexington, MA. Sharanya worked hard, learned a lot, made many friends and is excited to partake in more such productions.

To complement Bharatanatyam, she pursues learning Carnatic Music with Smt. Aparna Balaji of Billerica MA. A sophomore at Acton Boxborough Regional High School, Sharanya is an avid reader and debater and loves to hang out with her friends in her leisure. 

 She is ever so thankful for the amazing opportunities, training and life lessons she continues to learn from her teacher Smt. Sunanda Narayanan.

 Divya Rajan:

Divya Rajan, a senior student of Smt. Sunanda Narayanan won prizes in all the categories she took part at the Cleveland Aradhana Dance festival 2023 as follows: 

Keertanam (age group 17-19) First prize
Varnam (age group 15-19) Third prize
Choreography (age group 15-25) Third prize
Performance round (age group 15-25) Special mention

Divya is a repeat winner at the Cleveland Aradhana Dance festival, having won awards in her age group in 2019, 2018 and 2017. She was also a prize winner at the New Jersey Natyanjali dance competition, 2019 and was a top 10 finalist in 2023. 

Divya has been a student of Smt. Sunanda Narayanan since age 5.  Divya is 17 years old now and an extremely dedicated dancer. She also participated in the Cleveland Sustaining Sampradayam’s first dance production on April 14^th, 2023.  During her earlier years, Divya's talent was spotted by Guru Rhadha, who gave her the lead role of Krishna in her dance production, Nowka Charitram, staged at the Cleveland Festival in 2016. Divya completed her Bharatanatyam Arangetram in June 2018. Divya is a junior at Weston High School, a drum major, a lead tenor saxophone player for her school band and a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. Divya also learns Carnatic vocal music lessons from Smt. Aparna Balaji.

Divya is very grateful to her teacher, Smt. Sunanda Narayanan, for her training and guidance. She is excited and looking forward to learning further from her Guru. 

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