Nalini Rau, PhD
Dr. Nalini Rau is a dancer, choreographer, educator and teacher of Bharata Natyam, based in New York. As a dancer, she trained with the legendary nattuvunar / percussionist Guru Dakshinamoorthy Pillai and the duo Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi. She has a BA degree in Economics and is a gold medalist in MA in Linguistics from Delhi University. In addition she is a topper in French from Delhi University with a Masters and a doctorate in Theoretical Linguistics from the University of Illinois.
Her dance is informed both by her training, her academic background as well as her passion for teaching and connecting dance to contemporary issues. She likes the challenge of turning abstract ideas into visual movement.
Arts Westchester awarded her in April 2015, the “50 for 50” award as a recognition for her “outstanding contributions as a choreographer”. She was the honoree artist for IACAW in 2018 for her contributions to the community. She received from the Natya Nava Ratna President of India, awarded by her Guru under the auspices of Natya Kalalayam.
Dr. Rau uses the traditional style and techniques to explore current issues. Her choreography makes these two strands come together in her dance. She has explored the effects of the virus of hate in the pandemic, the quest for peace, self transormation, facets of womanhood, our relation to the society, human emotions, conflicts and resolutions, reinterpreting of mythology, along with the more traditional repertoire.
She has trained over 200 students of every age at Natya Anubhava, and been invited as an educator in numerous schools, colleges, museums and art forums.
She has enjoyed sharing her art at many festivals including the Marghazi winter festival, Chennai, the Town Hall, Manhattan, United Nations for the International day of Happiness in March 2016, several shows at the Arts Westchester, International events for peace, Central Park. She has also had interactive presentations at the Krannert Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Pelham Art Center. She has been an active performer and participant of the Hammond Museum exhibitions during the pandemic. She presented Agraani, a dance ballet on the women trail blazers at SAIPAF, Manhattan in August 2015 , which was one of a series of recitals on the role of women. She has collaborated with artists round the globe, most recently with Bibiana Huang.
She teaches beginners to master classes to select students at the India Center and at her studio at Yorktown.
Nalini Rau, PhD, Director of Natya Anubhava Academy of Classical Dance