Lalli Venkat

🪔 About

Lalli Venkat is an accomplished Bharatanatyam soloist and choreographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. She has undergone 17 years of rigorous training in the Kalakshethra style of Bharatanatyam under Smt. Jayanthi Sridhar, a disciple of Guru Adayar K. Lakshman. Additionally, she has received training in Carnatic music from Smt. Anuradha Sridhar, a disciple of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman. Venkat completed her arangetram in 2010. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in South Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, she founded Natya at Berkeley, an Indian classical dance team, which ignited her interest in choreography and exploring new dance styles. She was also awarded the FLAS Fellowship from the Department of Education for her academic scholarship in Tamil language and culture. Lalli Venkat has performed and competed across the United States, including securing second place at the prestigious Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Her choreographic works have been showcased at notable events such as the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (with Natya @ Berkeley in 2017) and ODC's Pushfest (in 2016 and 2017). She has also served as an artist-in-residence at Safehouse Arts SF. Since 2016, Venkat has been a company dancer with the San Francisco-based Nava Dance Theatre. With Nava Dance, she has performed in various productions, including "Migrations" and "Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies" (December 2022), an ensemble work examining the labor of South Asian immigrant women. She has also performed in local productions like "Mudivil Oru Aarambam" and "The Affair." Lalli Venkat continues to pursue her dance career as a soloist and choreographer, aiming to communicate this traditional art form to modern audiences by blending eclectic music with intricate rhythms, lines, and expressions. Awards & Honours: Second place (2016), FLAS Fellowship.