Justin McCarthy

🪔 About

Justin McCarthy, born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1957, is an American-born Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, musician, and instructor renowned for his significant contributions to Indian classical dance. He began his artistic journey at age five with piano lessons. His early dance training took place at the Berkeley School of Dance in the United States, where he studied Bharatanatyam under Lesandre Ayrey and Mimi Janislawski, both disciples of Balasaraswati, at The Way of the Dance School in Berkeley, California, in the mid-1970s. In 1979, McCarthy moved to India to pursue intensive training. He initially studied with Pandanallur Subbaraya Pillai in Chennai for a year, before relocating to New Delhi. There, he undertook a decade-long apprenticeship under the renowned guru Leela Samson at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, focusing on the Kalakshetra style. During this period, he also delved into Carnatic music with Shyamala Sundaram and Sanskrit poetics and grammar with Gopal Krishna. He performed his arangetram (debut) in New Delhi in 1984. McCarthy has been a pivotal figure in Bharatanatyam education, teaching at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in New Delhi since 1990, where he heads the Bharatanatyam department. He acquired Indian citizenship and has been instrumental in training generations of dancers. Additionally, he serves as the Director of Performing Arts and Head of the Department for Co-curricular Activities at Ashoka University since 2014. As a choreographer, McCarthy has created numerous ensemble works, including "Maduraikanchi" (1993), "Abhigyanashakuntalam" (1997), "Rajavilasam" (2009), "Lokaalokam" (2010), "Naukacharitramu" (2013), and "Where the Streets are Fragrant with Sandal Paste" (2017). Beyond dance, he co-directed a national award-winning documentary on South Indian courtesans with Sandhya Kumar in 2012. A versatile musician, he plays and teaches piano and harpsichord, and is fluent in Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, and French, in addition to English. Awards & Honours: Nartaka lifetime achievement award (2017), National Award for documentary film on South Indian courtesans (co-director) (2012).