About Us | taalsutra

Meet The Team

Meet the talented individuals who make TaalSutra a success. Each member brings their unique skills and passion to our team.

Advisor

Guru Sharmila Mukerjee

Sharmila Mukerjee is the founder and artistic director of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance in Bangalore which was established in 2004.

Initiated into the Uday Shankar style of dance, Sharmila, at the young age of sixteen played the main role of Chandalika in Tagore's dance drama "Chandalika" during the poet's birth anniversary celebration in Calcutta, and caught the attention of the critics who wrote about her inborn grace and amazing stage presence. Thereafter, she started learning Odissi under the tutelage of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra from 1984 in Kolkata. Rigorous , intensive training in Odissi continued at her Guru's residence in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra himself accompanied Sharmila on the mardala for her Rangapravesh in 1988, and thereafter, Sharmila started performing Odissi as a solo artist and in some productions directed by Guruji.

A Grade A artist of Doordarshan and an Established artist of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Sharmila has performed at various prestigious festivals and conferences in India and abroad in countries like Fiji, Malaysia, Australia , New Zealand, Italy, U.S.A, Indonesia and U.A.E .

The Sanjali Ensemble, which Guru Sharmila Mukherjee leads, has been empanelled by the Ministry of Culture ( Govt.of India) in the "outstanding" category to participate in festivals of India abroad.

Sharmila has won numerous awards including

Singar Mani from the Sur Singar Samsad (Mumbai),
Kala Gaurav from Karnataka, and the Sironama from Kolkata
The 2016 Mahari Award from the Guru Pankaj Charan Das Foundation (Orissa)

Advisor

Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya

On 4th April 2002, The New York Times (Woodstock edition) opined: “Sanchita’s intricate footwork and expressive evocative style have brought her accolades; her dance has been described as perfection.”

Odissi danseuse Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya is a seasoned world class soloist in the global arena, taking this dance form to its greatest heights across the world. An indomitable daughter of the great soil of India, one of the oldest civilizations, she has been spreading the art form zealously, as a force to reckon with, to awestruck audiences across continents.

For the last three decades, her dance journey encompasses solo performances at the greatest venues worldwide including Madison Square Garden in New York City, The Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. In India, she has performed in many reputable festivals including the Khajuraho Festival, Kalidas Sammelan, The Jagannath Temple Puri, Maihar Festival, Kumar Gandharv Festival, Sankat Mochan Festival in Varanasi, Dover lane Festival in Kolkata and many more.

Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya has received numerous awards and Felicitations including

Bharat Nirman Award 2016 as a couple (Jointly with Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya , Sanchita ji’s spouse) in recognition of their exemplary contribution in the field of Classical Dance and Classical Music respectively)
“Cultural Ambassador of India”warded by Senator John G Papageorge, Detroit USA in 2007
Mahari 2018 from Bhubaneshwar India

Advisor

Guru Latasana Devi

Guru Latasana Devi is a Manipuri dance performer, teacher, choreographer and founder of Kaina Foundation, a nonprofit organization. She is the disciple of Late Guru Bipin Singh, Padmashree Darshana Jhaveri, Kalavati Devi and Guneswari Devi.

She is closely associated with the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) and has participated in many reputed festivals in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, and the India festival in France. She also toured the U.S.A. and Mexico with the Jhaveri Sisters as part of the India Culture Delegation. And has represented India at the International Drum Dance Festival held in Indonesia. An invitation for a solo performance at the India Festival took her to Milan, Italy in April 2002.

Latasana has also danced at prestigious festivals across India, including the Khajuraho Millennium Festival where she performed with the Jhaveri Sisters. She has been part of the Ganga Festival (Benaras), Nishigandhi Festival (Trivandrum), Haridas Sammelan (Mumbai), Laudin Khan festival (Maihar) and Chhand Festival, Bharat Bhavan (Bhopal).

She is a Top Grade artist in Doordarshan National Television and an established empanelled artist ICCR.

She has received numerous awards, titles and felicitations including:

National Atalshree Samman 2021
2024 Vidya Ravi from Alap
2022 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for contribution to Manipuri dance announced in 2024

BOD

Abira Das

Smt. Abira Das is an accomplished dancer, choreographer, teacher and artistic director of Krishti Academy of Dance, one of the leading Bharatanatyam dance schools in the bay area. She has been trained and mentored by Smt. Thankamani Kutty of Kalamandalam and Sri Venkit Kutty of Uma Kalalayam. She has performed in various dance festivals and cultural events all over US and India, some of which are …………………………………………………………….. She is recipient of prestigious awards like Rajya Sangeet Academy, NrityaSuvarna Mani and several others. She has been a judge to prestigious dance competitions in the Bay Area organized by OSAAT, BATA, Cambrian community and others. Abira has conducted lecture demonstrations and workshops for children in local bay area schools promoting Indian classical dance.

Apart from dancing, she also works in the HR department in the social service sector serving adults with developmental disabilities and is very passionate about bringing a change in the lives of differently abled people.

BOD

Kanika Mitra Bhatacharya

Kanika is a student and an assistant teacher of Odissi dance at Guru Shradha under Guru Niharika Mohanty. She started learning Odissi more than a decade ago in Bangalore under Guru Sharmila Mukerjee and performed in various venues such as Konark dance festival, Mukteswar dance festival, Dover lane dance festival and more. She also performed in Tunisia sponsored by Ministry of Cultural affairs, Government of India. She performed in many festivals in Bay Area also like Kelucharan Keerti Sampradaya, Kelucharan Guna Keertana, Nrityamela etc. She performed solo and also as an Ensemble group. She has done choreography on different classical and semi-classical dances. She is continuously doing workshops with Guru Suja Mahaparta and Guru Sharmila Mukerjee.

Kanika is a software engineer by profession and mom of a high schooler. She loves hiking, traveling and biking.

BOD

Urmi Chakraborty

From the tender age of 4, Urmi Chakraborty embarked on her Kathak dance journey, first under the tutelage of Smt. Shubhra Mukhopadhyaya in the Jaipur Gharana style, later advancing her skills with Smt. Gopa Basu, a protégé of Pandit Vijay Shankar, in the Lucknow Gharana tradition. Her performances have spanned from Kolkata, India, to various cultural events in the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Seattle. Currently she is teaching kathak since 2021 at Sunbollywood school. In a bid to enrich her dance vocabulary, Urmi pursued learning in Manipuri and Indian contemporary dance from Guru Sanjib Bhattacharya. She holds a significant position as the cultural director of the Bay Area Prabasi, a Bengali community organization, where she leads and collaborates on various dance productions with community dancers and other organizations.

Urmi has taken center stage in several local dance productions, including a notable performance in "Cillapadikadam," a revered ancient Tamil epic, presented to Bay Area audiences. She is currently honing her Kathak skills under the guidance of Guru Nirmala Madhava.

In addition to her artistic pursuits, Urmi is a biotech scientist in the San Francisco Bay Area and the mother of a seven-year-old.

BOD

Mousumi Bose

Mousumi Bose is a trained dancer in classical Odissi and Manipuri dance forms. Mousumi started her Odissi journey under the tutelage of Guru Niharika Mohanty in San Francisco Bay area, embracing Padma Bibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s style of Odissi. She has participated in many workshops conducted by distinguished Odissi stalwarts in India , such as, Guru Sujata Mohapatra, Guru Ratikant Mohapatra (Srjan) and Guru Bichitranand Swain (Rudraksh Dance Foundation). Currently, Mousumi is a senior disciple of Guru Vishnu Tattva Das.

Mousumi has trained extensively in classical Manipuri dance throughout her childhood years under Smt. Gouri Datta, senior disciple of legendary Guru Bipin Singh. She has also explored the Uday Shankar gharana under the guidance of Smt. Tanushree Shankar and dabbled in contemporary dance under Smt. Mallika Sarabhai, Guru Sanjib Bhattacharya and Sri Sudarshan Chakraborty.

Mousumi has choreographed and performed in many cultural events in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, as well as in Kolkata,India. Some of her notable dance moments include performing in front of Indian PM Narendra Modi(2015) and representing Bengal in the multi-media production The Partition:1947 (2018), in collaboration with Enacte Arts and Noorani Dance.

When she is not dancing , Mousumi is a senior product management leader in data analytics and AI at Salesforce.

BOD

Arundhati Parmar

Arundhati Parmar is a trained Manipuri dancer who started dancing when her father used to sing in her neighborhood productions. When she was 4, she enrolled as a student of Manipuri Nartanalaya founded by the legendary Guru Bipin Singh. She learned under Guru Bipin Singh as well as Guru Kalavati Devi, his wife and performed on stage in Kolkata and on local television. Later, after a long pause, she rediscovered Manipuri dance in the Bay Area under the tutelage of Guru Sanjib Bhattacharya , a senior disciple of Guru Darshana Jhaveri and Guru Bipin Singh, who is also adept at contemporary and creative styles. With him, she toured Seattle and also performed creative dance pieces for online productions during the pandemic. Arundhati has performed in Las Vegas and other Bay Area venues

She currently learns from Guru Latasana Devi who resides in Mumbai, the winner of 2022 Sangeet Akademi Award for her contribution to Manipuri Dance,which was announced in 2024. She also choreographs dance and has led community dancers in several Bay Area performances.

When she is not dancing, Arundhati is the editor-in-chief of MedCity News, an industry publication covering innovation in healthcare and the mother of Ishaan and Eshaa.

BOD

Sreyashi Raha

Notable Bay Area Leader

Ranjit Chakravorti

Dr. Ranjit Chakravorti is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, visionary leader and friend. He is one of the founder-members of Prabasi in 1974. He was Chairman of the Board, first Treasurer and currently a member of the Advisory Council of Prabasi. He has been a Rotarian for the past 30 years with Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club (DSVR). He was President of the Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club and DSV Community Foundation. He was the Chair of the Matching Grants (Global Grants) Committee, managing hundreds of millions of dollars for International Humanitarian Projects for Rotary District 5160. He has managed Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in India for Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club .

He is Chairman and President of the Board of Directors for Global Jadavpur University Alumni Foundation Inc, a 501 c 3 non-profitable organization, for helping JU students, staff and faculty in making JU as a world-class university. As an entrepreneur he founded TRS Consultants, Inc (TRS), an engineering and construction management firm in 1987 and completed more than 200 projects with a construction value of more than $2.5 billion. He sold his firm in 2009.

BOD

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