Tarana's Arangetram
Sridevi Jagannath is the Director of Laasya School of Dance and Music and a proficient Bharatanatyam dancer with over four decades of performing experience. She trained under renowned gurus including Padmini Ravi, K.J. Sarasa, the late Smt. Bhanumathi, and Smt. Lalitha Srinivasan (Mysore Style), and continues to train under Natyacharya Smt. Shobana Balachandra and Padmini Ravi.
She founded Laasya School of Dance and Music in Durham, NC in 1995 (now in its 31st year), building it into one of the premier Bharatanatyam institutions in the Triangle area. In 32 years of teaching, she has guided over 100 students through their arangetrams and founded NATYA, a non-profit promoting solo classical dance among youth in the Triangle. Known affectionately as "Sridevi akka," she has taken her dance troupe to perform across the U.S., Canada, Australia, Dubai, Japan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and India, with acclaimed productions including Krishna Bhakti Mala, Dashavataram, Yaatra, and Samatva (addressing mental health stigma in Asian communities), as well as the widely praised Raja Simha, inspired by The Lion King.
Her honors include the Heritage India Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Leadership Excellence Award from Pratham, the Aryabhatta International Award (Government of Karnataka, 2017), and the Konark Nritya Ratna Award (Government of Odisha, 2018). She is also deeply committed to community service, having raised over $25,000 for Pratham and $4,000 for Make-A-Wish NC through her dance productions. Sridevi holds an MBA in Global Management, is a certified Life Coach, and serves on the examination boards of The Griffin College, London, and Pracheena Kala Kendra. She is currently learning Sattriya, an eighth classical Indian dance form, and continues to lead international dance immersion programs for young dancers.
Tarana Adukoori has been learning the Vazhavoor style of Bharatanatyam for around 10 years under the guidance of guru Smt. Sridevi Jagannath. Tarana is a board member of NATYA, a non-profit organization run by 7 senior students of the Laasya School of Dance, which provides Indian classical dancers of all levels the opportunity to perform solo. Tarana has also interned at Laasya. This August, she will be studying computer science at Johns Hopkins University.