“Bharatanatyam is an art oceanic in width and depth. I have taken you a few steps on its shore. I hope the vision you have had of this ocean will inspire you to dive into it and cull its pearls yourself.”
— T. Balasaraswati

Aggie Brenneman

Aggie Brenneman has been teaching dance in the SF Bay Area for over 40 years, after having lived in India, Nepal and Malaysia for nine years. She studied Bharatanatyam with the renowned Thanjavur Balasaraswati and her daughter, Lakshmi Knight, at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, the American Dance Festivals at Connecticut College and Duke University, and at their home in Chennai, India. She was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research mythology and to study with Smt. Shyamala, a disciple of Balasaraswati in India. Aggie has performed in the US, India, Nepal and Malaysia. Since 2016 she has made frequent trips to India to assist Aniruddha Knight, grandson of Balasaraswati, in teaching dance at his school in Chennai. Aggie was a classroom teacher at Park Day School in Oakland for 30 years where she began a Bharatanatyam program that has reached over 500 students of diverse backgrounds. She now serves as a docent at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. Through her involvement in Bharatanatyam, Aggie strives to preserve the ancient dance tradition of the South Indian Tanjore Court in the style of T. Balasaraswati.

 
Aggie Brenneman
Aggie Tillana

Rasya Choppalli

Rasya began her Bharatanatyam training at age 9 in Hong Kong under the guidance of Smt. Ranjani Menon, a disciple of T. Balasaraswati and Lakshmi Knight, completing her Arangetram in 2005. She has performed internationally, participating in major productions across Hong Kong, Singapore, and India. After moving to the Bay Area in 2015, she founded Sarada School of Dance in 2017. Currently, she teaches in Berkeley and Dublin under the Bala Center of South Indian Dance with Aggie and Deepa. Rasya loves working with kids and adults through dance, stories and movement, and believes art in any form fosters discipline, creativity, and a strong sense of community for children and adults. 

DEEPA PREETI
NATARAJAN

Deepa had been assisting Aggie in teaching the dance classes for a decade before moving to Portland, Oregon in 2020.  A graduate of Boston University, Deepa grew up in Ohio in a Tamilian family where she was trained in many dance forms throughout her education including ballet, modern, West African and many more, all but Bharatanatyam. She began studying Bharatanatyam with Aggie in Oakland, and has also studied with Smt. Shyamala in Chennai, India where her family is from.  In 2011 Deepa performed her Arangetram, the graduation performance of a solo dancer with a group of live musicians. Deepa enjoys teaching and has spearheaded a program for our youngest dancers that highlights the rich stories told in Bharatanatyam. Deepa loves plants and natural dyes and worked for the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley organizing educational programs before moving to Portland, Oregon, where she is the Admissions Director of the Arbor School. She is also actively involved with the Sangati Center for South Asian Music, an organization founded by her Carnatic vocalist husband Gautam Tejas Ganeshan. 

 
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“It is difficult to explain the reason for the enchantment, but when Balasaraswati dances the dancer dissappears, and her entire personality merges into the dance... All magic, not a single moment without some delight.”
— The Statesman, Delhi, March 29, 1955
 
T. Balasaraswati

T. Balasaraswati

Tanjore Balasaraswati, also known as Balasaraswati (May 13, 1918 - February 9,1984), was a celebrated Indian dancer. Her rendering of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance style which originated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, made this style of dancing well known in different parts of India and many parts of the world. 

She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1977, the third and second highest civilian honors given by the Government of India. In 1981 she was awarded theSangeetha Kalasikhamani award of The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai.

T. Balasaraswati
 
Inspirational Balasaraswati

early LIFE

Balasaraswati was a 7th generation representative of a traditional matrilineal family of temple musicians and dancers, who have been described as the greatest single repository of the traditional performing arts of music and dance of the southern region of India. Her ancestor Papammal was a musician and dancer patronized in the mid-18th century by the court of Thanjavur. Her grandmother Vina Dhanammal (1867-1938) is considered by many to be the most influential musician of the early 20th century. Her mother, Jayammal (1890-1967) was a singer who encouraged the training of Balasaraswati and was her accompanist.