Neena Jayarajan

🪔 About

Neena Jayarajan is a prominent independent dance theatre artist, performer, teacher, and choreographer with extensive experience in Bharatanatyam and Odissi. She trained for over 28 years with Guru Dr. Menaka Thakkar and holds an MA in Dance from York University. Her foundational training also includes studies with renowned teachers such as CV Chandrashekar, Sujatha Mohapatra, and Padma Bushan Kalanidhi Narayan. Jayarajan served as the Assistant Artistic Director, principal dancer, and rehearsal director of the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company (MTDC) for six to seven years, touring across North America and Asia, and performing in over 200 schools across Canada with MTDC's children's programming. She also dedicated two decades as an assistant teacher at Nrtyakala. Since 2012, she has been an Associate Artist with Nova Dance, contributing to both creative and organizational initiatives, including Discover Dance and Compassion Funding for Caregivers. As a choreographer, Jayarajan explores the intersections of classical South Asian dance vocabularies with contemporary sensibilities, using tradition as a foundation for new artistic inquiries. Her work "Tejas," presented at the Ripe Fruit Festival, challenges traditional aesthetics of Bharatanatyam while honoring its complexity. She has originated roles in productions such as "Broken Lines," "Jatiswaram Remix," and "Svāhā!" Her theatrical debut was in Theatre Smith-Gilmour's "Metamorphosis." Committed to shaping the Canadian dance landscape, Neena Jayarajan serves on the boards of CADA West and The Dance Current magazine, and has been Vice-Chair of CADA/East since 2021. Awards & Honours: Chalmers Arts Fellowship Grant (2016).