Karuna Sagari V

🪔 About

Karuna Sagari Venkatachalam is a classical Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher, choreographer, and institution head, known for her innovative approach to the art form and her commitment to making it accessible. She received her initial training from her mother, Dr. Neela Venkatachalam. Karuna Sagari graduated with honours from the world-renowned Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai in 2008. For a decade, she was guided by choreographer Sheejith Krishna and is currently under the mentorship of veteran danseuse Malavika Sarukkai. Beyond her dance training, Karuna Sagari holds a Master's degree in South Asian Studies from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and a Master's degree in Tamil from Annamalai University. She inherited a rich oral-matrilineal legacy in poetry and music from her grandmother, Smt. Swarna Somasundaram, an esteemed scholar of classical and medieval Tamil literature, immersing her in devotional corpora like Tevaram, Tiruvasagam, and Tiruppugazh since childhood. In June 2008, she founded Bhakti Natya Niketan (BNN) in Coimbatore, where she developed an "organic pedagogy" for teaching Bharatanatyam, akin to learning a mother tongue. Through BNN, she has implemented rural outreach programs, teaching Bharatanatyam to underprivileged children in areas like Anaikatti since 2009. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes Bharatanatyam as a language, encouraging students to interpret poetry and connect dance to contemporary relevance. Karuna Sagari is also a performer, choreographer, and writer, contributing to magazines like Sruti and The Trinity Mirror Newspaper. She has performed internationally and collaborated across diverse fields, using dance to address social issues and foster empathy.