12/04/2024
Meet Guest Choreographer Rathna Kumar!
Rathna is a reputed performer, choreographer, teacher, arts educator, cultural ambassador, scholar, linguist, singer, public speaker and a published author who specializes in two classical dance forms, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.
Rathna has trained over 3000 students from around the country, choreographed 36 productions and hundreds of dances in several languages, and composed music for others. Her choreography transcends barriers of religion, geography, or language, which is what sets it apart. Her creative teaching methodology has been replicated by many younger teachers of dance who came to the US later.
Firmly believing in the universality of all art, Rathna has collaborated with dancers from New York, Canada, Boston, and Washington, DC, to present programs that simultaneously represent diversity and tradition. Similarly, in Houston, she has worked with dancers from Africa, Middle East, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Spain, to showcase the common denominator of rhythm in all these dance forms. In collaboration with the famous writer Chitra Divakaruni, Rathna has presented “Poetry in Motion”, which has created two programs for the Young Audiences of Houston, with the purpose of creating awareness of India’s vibrant cultural arts among school children across the city and making them understand that Indian dances are not only beautiful but fun to learn.
Wanting to do more for the promotion of Indian performing arts in the mainstream, Rathna founded Houston’s first nonprofit arts organization, Samskriti, whose mission is to be an efficient cultural conduit between the East and the West and developed a series of programs for Samskriti under the title Incredible India, presented at the Miller Outdoor Theatre.
Tickets are on sale now at www.houstonurbannutcracker.org.
