Kiran Rajagopalan

🪔 About

Kiran Rajagopalan is an award-winning Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, writer, and educator, based in Chicago, USA. Born and raised in the United States, he received his early Bharatanatyam training from Asha Prem, Prasanna Kasthuri, and Sujatha Srinivasan. From 2007 to 2014, he lived in Chennai, India, where he pursued advanced training in Bharatanatyam under A. Lakshmanaswamy and Bragha Bessell. During this period, he also studied Carnatic violin with A. Kanyakumari and Anusha Sreeram, and Bhagavata Mela Natakam under S. Natarajan. Rajagopalan holds a B.A. (magna cum laude) in Behavioral Neuroscience and Spanish from Boston University (2008), an M.A. (honors) in Bharatanatyam from the University of Madras (2010), and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University (2015). He began performing Bharatanatyam internationally in 2006, with acclaimed performances in India, Indonesia, Germany, Spain, France, and the United States. He regularly conducts workshops, lectures, and demonstrations on Indian classical dance, aesthetics, and neuroscience. In 2017, he co-founded Daya Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to bridging diasporic communities of color through original artistic productions rooted in West African and South Asian visual and performing arts. He also served as Senior Program Director at Arts Horizons for seven years. In May 2024, Rajagopalan relocated to Chicago to assume the role of Executive Director of Kalapriya Center for Indian Performing Arts. He is also an adjunct faculty member in Marymount Manhattan College's Department of Dance. Rajagopalan is known for his multidisciplinary work, exploring themes that highlight similarities between West African, West Indian, and Hindu spirituality.