About Me

The repertoire of Bharatanatyam, like all major classical Indian dance forms, follows the three categories of performance in the Natya Shastra. These are Nritta (Nirutham), Nritya (Niruthiyam) and Natya (Natyam).

Prahelika Rajagopalan is an upcoming Bharatanatyam dancer who began learning dance at the age of 4. She started training in Bharatanatyam under Smt. Santha Bhaskar, Singapore and Smt. Ambujah Thiru, Singapore. As a kid, she has given numerous performances, both solo and group presentations with Nrithyalaya Aesthetics Society. She has not only performed in NAS’s annual programs, but also in many temples and other such platforms in Singapore. She has participated and won a number of competitions and won the silver medal at SYF (Singapore Youth Festival).

Prahelika moved to India and continued dance under the tutelage of guru Sri. Pandanallur Gopalakrishnan Pillai and Smt. Indu Varma. She was trained in the Tanjavur style and did her arangetram in 2005. She has also performed in a many sabhas under Smt. Indu Varma’s guidance and did a group presentation on Tyagesha Kuravanji. She has also performed the ‘Narayaneeyam’ in Chennai and Mangalore.

Prahelika is currently pursuing Bharatanatyam under her guru Dr. Sujatha Mohan, a senior disciple of Dr. Padma Subramaniam. With the support and encouragement from her guru, she completed her Master Of Fine Arts (M.F.A) under Dr. Padma Subramaniam at Sastra University in 2014. She has performed a number of margams in many Sabhas in Chennai and also participated in numerous group presentations. She also started learning Nattuvangam under her guru and assisted her guru in taking class for the kids. Prahelika is one of the core dancers at Padmashree Nrithyalaya.

Prahelika moved to San Jose, CA in 2017 and has been practicing Dance by choreographing a number of pieces and collaborating with independent dancers in the Bay Area. Experimenting with other styles and brainstorming with dancers from different banis is something that amuses her. She is also a part of various Dance Groups like Smaran, Atma Tarang etc; and is continuously learning by giving performances frequently. She further trained and got mentored from Smt. Vidyalatha Jeerge, San Jose, USA and has performed with her guru under the Smaran banner. She is currently taking classes under Guru Smt. Vidhya Subramaniam.

Prahelika continues taking Skype Classes with her guru, Dr. Sujatha Mohan and works on unique pieces with her teacher every time she goes to India. She is currently learning the 108 Karanas based and formulated by Dr. Padma Subramaniam. She has also been trained in the basic elements of Karanas like Caris, Sthanas, Nritta Hasthas and the Bharatanrityam repertoire.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Media and has completed her MBA in Marketing and MFA. She currently works as a Business Development Manager with a start-up firm in San Jose. Despite juggling a number of activities currently, her passion and desire for dance never dies. She strives to become a better dancer with practice and hopes to find the inner meaning for dance and creativity.

Her other hobbies include, travelling, hiking, swimming, experimenting food, watching movies and listening to music.