Pallavi Nagesha: Founding and Artistic Director
Pallavi began her Bharatanatyam training under Guru Poornima Risbud, in the Mysore style. With Poornima, Pallavi has produced and Performed Abhignana Shakuntalam, a dance drama hailed as Broadway style production in Boston and Nrityotsav, a day-long dance festival featuring stalwart dancers from around the globe. She has performed in many productions in the New England area, including Vision Aid and Snehalaya. She has also served as a judge at many prestigious classical dance competitions in the area. Pallavi is also the recipient of grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2023 and Local Cultural Councils in the years 2013, 2019, and 2022. She was recognized for her contributions to the BIPOC community in Wayland, MA and continues to advocate for diversity and inclusion.
Pallavi, the founding director of Bhūmikā Arts teaches Bharatanatyam, Sanskrit, Yoga, and the Āyurvedic lifestyle. Pallavi believes that Dance, Yoga, and Āyurveda are three inseparable components that open you to new and transformative experiences. To Pallavi, dance is an overt expression of true love, where one needs to drop the self (ego) to understand and bask in the beloved. She instills this spiritual seed in all her students and hopes that through dance, each of them gives themselves permission to explore that connection with the universal Truth.
Pallavi is currently undergoing advanced training in Bharatanatyam from Guru Padmini Ravi. She is also pursuing Karaṇa Saṅgītaṁ under the guidance of Guru Nirupama Rajendra. Pallavi’s unique style is an amalgamation of her absorption of style, technique, nuances of abhinaya, and intricate connection with music, rhythm, and poetry she has learned from many teachers including Shekhar Shastri, Poornima Risbud, Sheejith Krishna, Bragha Bessel, Rama Vaidyanathan, Ananda Shankar Jayanth, Madhavi Mudgal, and many more. She hopes to continue her learning under the stalwarts and expand her understanding and deepen her relationship with this sublime art form.
Pallavi currently serves on the Wayland Cultural Council and is a LLARC instructor at Regis College in Westin, MA and volunteers at the LearnQuest Academy and serves on its annual festival committee in various capacities, including LearnQuest Music Conference Chair for 2024. She serves on the steering committee of the AAPI Arts & Culture Collaborative. Pallavi also volunteers her time and art for Saheli, Boston and takes every opportunity to help educate and uplift women.
Pallavi is a content creator by profession and currently works for Amazon Web Services as a Senior Documentation Manager.
Revati Masilamani: Creative Director
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Revati, the Creative Director of Bhumika Arts is a student, practitioner and teacher of classical dance in the Bharatanatyam style as well as the martial art form Kalarippayattu. At Bhumika she teaches both young children and adults the joy of expressing themselves through dance. Her happiest teaching moments involve watching students lose themselves in the beauty of the musicality and rhythm of dance, and in those moments of immersion, truly begin to find themselves.
Revati started her Bharatanatyam journey in India under Acharyas Sujatha Krishnan and Deepika Nagaraj and has continued to learn from masters of the Kalakshetra baani. She performs as a soloist as well as in ensemble productions at dance festivals, concerts, and chamber events in Delhi, Boston, NYC, DC and LA. She has performed in Navarasa Dance Theater Company’s touring productions of Snake and Ladder, and These Poems, These Songs, These Dances. Her search for new ways of expression has led her to explore the Karana tradition with Pallavi Nagesha.
Revati’s creative conceptualization for dance includes stage and lighting design. She has worked with eminent artists on solo to large-scale productions. She is sought after for her out-of-the-box thinking with concept research, scripting and choreography.
Revati enjoys introducing audiences to Bharatanatyam and Kalari through lecture-demonstrations and workshops in local area schools and art festivals. She has also served as judge at competitive art events in the New England area to encourage students of the performing arts. She is a volunteer for LearnQuest Academy of Music, which brings classical music and dance artists from across the globe to Boston, annually, for a splendid celebration of Indian art forms. These experiences are always a powerful reminder to her of how art connects across divides of language, culture and time.