Ammr Vandal has been a member of the Parul Shah Dance Company for the last ten years. She began learning Kathak in her home town of Lahore, Pakistan under the tutelage of the late Maharaj Ghulam Hussain and Nahid Siddiqui.
After an extended break, in which she pursued her college education in Hong Kong and the US, she resumed her training in New York City under Parul Shah, a leading disciple of Padmashree Kumudini Lakhia.
The repertoire of the company includes traditional kathak solo and group pieces along with contemporary dance pieces. Ammr has been featured in numerous performances including Yale Center for British Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Jacobs Pillow: Inside/out series, the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts: EnGendered Arts festival, Solar One: Sun to Stars festival, City Center in New York: Fall for Dance Festival, Rosswell Cultural Center Atlanta: Parul Shah & Co., City Center in New York: Career Transitions for Dancers, Tribeca Performing Arts Center: Tradition Unbound , Brooklyn Museum of Art: Parul Shah & Co. as well several other educational and demonstrative performances. Ammr is currently based in New York where she is continuing her training under Parul Shah as a member of the Parul Shah Dance Company. Along with pursuing her passion for Kathak, she works as an Architect allowing for an undeniable influence of both spatial art forms on each other.
Mohip Joarder has been a member of the Parul Shah Dance Company since 2005. He began his Kathak training with Parul in 2001 after dancing as a modern dancer with various modern dance companies and choreographers around New York City. Prior to Kathak, Mohip has trained at the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance under the tutelage of teachers such as Marianne Bachmann, Denise Vale, and Dudley Williams.
Sumika Rajguru has classically trained in the Lucknow gharana of Kathak under Mrs. Aparna Karmarkar since seven years of age and began her tutelage under Parul Shah 2 years ago after taking a break to pursue other dance forms. Sumika has performed as a guest artist with Neville Dance Theatre (www.nevilledance.com), a contemporary ballet company, in their full-length production of Memento Muerto, an original Halloween ballet. A versatile dancer, Sumika continues to take argentine tango, modern/contemporary, and jazz classes to build her repertoire and expand her depth.
Reena Shah is a writer and dancer currently based in Pune, India. She is the author of Movement in Stills: the Life and Dance of Kumudini Lakhia, a biography published by Mapin Lit in 2005, and is currently working on a collection of short stories and prose poems. Reena began her Kathak training with Parul Shah and spent two years on a Fullbright grant studying at the Kadamb Center for Dance and Music in India under the guidance of Padma Bhushan Kumudini Lakhia, where she also developed her biography. She was a member of the Parul Shah Dance Company for seven years and works with the Akanksha Foundation in the field of education.
