Aggie Brenneman

🪔 About

Aggie Brenneman is a veteran Bharatanatyam teacher and performer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with over 40 years of teaching experience. She lived in India, Nepal, and Malaysia for nine years, where she immersed herself in the culture. Brenneman received her Bharatanatyam training from the legendary Thanjavur Balasaraswati and her daughter, Lakshmi Knight. Her studies took place at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, the American Dance Festivals at Connecticut College and Duke University, and at their home in Chennai, India. She first saw Balasaraswati perform in Berkeley in 1974 and began formal lessons with her in the US in 1976. Brenneman was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research mythology and to study with Smt. Shyamala, a disciple of Balasaraswati, in India. She has performed in the US, India, Nepal, and Malaysia. Since 2016, she has regularly traveled to India to assist Aniruddha Knight, Balasaraswati's grandson, in teaching dance at his school in Chennai. For 30 years, Brenneman was a classroom teacher at Park Day School in Oakland, where she initiated a Bharatanatyam program that educated over 500 students from diverse backgrounds. She currently serves as a docent at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and continues to teach Bharatanatyam, striving to preserve the ancient dance tradition of the South Indian Tanjore Court in the style of T. Balasaraswati. In 2017, she was 75 years old. Awards & Honours: Grant for mythology research and study.