Aggie Brenneman

🪔 About

Aggie Brenneman is a veteran Bharatanatyam teacher and performer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with over 40 years of experience in teaching the classical Indian dance form. She received her training from the renowned Thanjavur Balasaraswati and her daughter, Lakshmi Knight, studying 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. Brenneman also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research mythology and further her studies with Smt. Shyamala, a disciple of Balasaraswati. Her performance career has taken her to the US, India, Nepal, and Malaysia. Brenneman is dedicated to preserving the ancient dance tradition of the South Indian Tanjore Court in the style of T. Balasaraswati. For three decades, she was a classroom teacher at Park Day School in Oakland, where she initiated a Bharatanatyam program that introduced the art form to over 500 students from diverse backgrounds. Since 2016, she has frequently traveled to India to assist Aniruddha Knight, Balasaraswati's grandson, in teaching dance at his school in Chennai. She currently teaches under the Bala Center for South Indian Dance and serves as a docent at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. Awards & Honours: Grant for research and study.