Rasika Kumar is a Bharatanatyam performer and choreographer, steeped in tradition but with contemporary sensibilities. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director of the Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose (ADC), having studied under her mother Mythili Kumar, Artistic Director of ADC, and other renowned teachers. Since 2005, Rasika has been a soloist, principal dancer, and choreographer for all of ADCs performance seasons. Her choreography has been featured in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and SF WestWave Festival and has earned her an Arts Council of Silicon Valley Performing Arts Fellowship (2008). Rasikas collaborative rhythmic arrangement with Franco Imperial of San Jose Taiko garnered an Isadora Duncan Award in the Music category (2011). Last year, she won the Lakshmi Viswanathan Award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India) for her solo performance in the 2014 season.
Anjana Dasu has been learning Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of Smt. Mythili Kumar for over ten years and performed her arangetram in October 2005. Since then, and all through her undergraduate years, she has performed in several Abhinaya productions and toured with the company to New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Utah, and Missouri. Additionally, she has danced with the company at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. Critics have praised her as exquisite and a nuanced dancer with glowing stage presence. She was awarded the first prize in the Papanasam Sivan competition held in 2008 and gave a solo concert under the auspices of Yuva Bharati in February 2009. She has also choreographed a piece presented at the annual Yuva Bharati Kalpana concert. She continues to teach classes for Abhinaya Dance Company. She recently received her bachelors degree in computer science from UC Berkeley and currently works as a project analyst at VMware.