Ranjanaa Devi, Artistic Director:
Ranjanaa Devi, artistic director of Nataraj Performing Arts of India is a specialist in the classical and folk dance styles of India. She has received her training in dance under several of India's great gurus, especially the Kathakali master Guru Gopinath from whom she learnt choreographic and dance theater techniques. She studied Bharatanatyam, Manipuri and folk styles under Guru Valmiki Bannerjee and the Odissi style from Gurus Mayadhar Rout and Deb Prasad Das. She holds graduate degrees in Indian music and musicology from Delhi University, India and has studied temple rituals and texts as they relate to dance and prayer with the leading Brahmanic scholar Pandit Uniyal and Tantric scholar at the Krishnattam temple in Kerala. She has been studying Tibetan Buddhist texts since 1982 with several learned Tibetan Lamas and scholars in the U.S. and in India. Her interest and knowledge of the Asian performing arts reflects in the unique events she presents as the Director of the Asian Arts and Culture Program at the University of Massachusetts. She is guest faculty at the Five College Dance Department and teaches yearly courses at Mount Holyoke College. Asian Arts & Culture Program
