Sharanya Balaji

🪔 About

Sharanya Balaji is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher based in San Jose, California, USA. She began her training at the age of four under Guru Srimathi Vishal Ramani in San Jose, California. She completed her arangetram in August 2008 at the age of nine. Balaji has since performed extensively, including at the prestigious Chennai Music and Dance Festival in India. Her performances have garnered significant appreciation for her footwork, laya, and bhava. She has been a consistent Top 5 Finalist at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival from 2012 to 2014, and has been selected to perform in professional productions at the festival with senior dance artists from Chennai, India. Balaji has also performed in productions choreographed by renowned gurus such as Smt. Anitha Guha, Smt. Jayanthi Subramaniam, Smt. Radhika Shurajit, Smt. Divyasena, and Smt. Savithri Jaganatha Rao. She was awarded the "Yuvashri Kala Bharathi" in December 2008 and was a medal winner at the VDS Arts Academy for her performance in 2009. In 2015, she received a master apprenticeship grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and an Honorable Mention from National YoungArts. Beyond performing, Balaji is also a teacher at her own dance company located in Cupertino and Morgan Hill, California. She is the founder of STEAMForward, an organization dedicated to providing arts programs for underprivileged schools. She has also organized solo fundraiser concerts for Starting Arts to benefit Grant Elementary School. As of 2020, she was a disciple of Guru Smt. Aishwarya Balasubramanian and Kalaimamani Guru Smt. Anitha Guha. She is currently a Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services. Awards & Honours: Yuvashri Kala Bharathi (2008), Medal Winner (2009), Top 5 Finalist, Master Apprenticeship Grant (2015), Honorable Mention Winner, Dance Competition Prizes (2009).