season for kathak

CREATING NEW WORKS OF ART WITH A PURPOSE

      Your donation sustains the Season for Kathak program in the following ways:

• Supporting CDI to create new, world-class productions in Indian classical arts

• Sustaining the Legacy of Pandit Chitresh Das with Kathak Dance & Teaching Fellowships

CDI ANNUAL SCHOOL SHOW

A Gift to The Community & Future Generations

Our Annual School Show bring students and community together to experience kathak on a professional stage with world-class musicians. Our school show attracts approximately 600 audience members, and features 175 students.

MAJOR PRODUCTIONS.

Professional productions that present kathak at the highest level with world class artists cost $60-$70K to produce and are only possible with donor support. 

• “Invoking the River”, was just presented at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco to a full house of 600 audience members and standing ovations. This powerful work continues to draw praise from critics and standing ovations from audience from San Francisco, to Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, New York City, and more.

• “Veil of Janki Bai”, was premiered in 2025 and will be presented again in 2027, stay tuned for more details!

• “Mantram”, with music composed by Grammy-nominated artist Alam Khan, “Mantram” has continued to wow audiences with excerpts being presented this year alone at the Marin Dance Festival, Mountain View Dance Festival, IPAA’s 9th Annual International Dance Festival, and more.

CDI KATHAK DANCE & TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS

The Kathak Dance Fellowship has been a hugely successful program. It provides Chitresh Das Youth Company alumni with training and a stipend for practice and rehearsal and paid professional performance opportunities.

The following dancers have received the Kathak Fellowship, performed in the professional company, and some have toured throughout the U.S. and India: Mayuka Sarukkai, Vanita Mundhra, Shruti Pai, Kritika Sharma, Gauri Bhatnagar, Ishani Basak, Srija Bhattacharya, Grishma Shukla, Ishq Pradhan. The 2026-27 Kathak Dance Fellow is Avani Viswanathan..

Kathak Teaching Fellowship, Key to sustaining the legacy of Pandit Chitresh Das is highly trained and experienced teachers as well as dancers. We launched the Kathak Teaching Fellowship in Summer 2025 with Ishani Basak. After completing the Fellowship, Ishani is now assisting several classes and substitute teaching as the next phase for teaching her own classes. 2026-2 27 Teaching Fellows are Neema Sakariya and Avani Viswanathan.

The fellowship will include training and apprentice teaching opportunities and professional development. When completed Fellows are eligible for professional teaching positions.

Help us fund this powerful legacy for current and future generations

Donate Today!