Varnam Salon
Sunday, May 31 | 11-1 PM
Studio 210
3435 Cesar Chavez St #210
San Francisco, CAThe Varnam Salon is a series of performances initially conceived to see bharatanatyam practitioners in their element, to encourage the continued practice of timeless pieces in the bharatanatyam repertoire (the varnam!), and to support artists with strong ties to California communities. It has since evolved to consider many Indian classical forms and traditions and how they live with us today.
So we ask, what can a varnam be? It can show love and devotion; it can be a carnatic opening piece and a memorable pallavi; something to explore on a solo journey or with fellow artists. We are thrilled to feature a lineup that represents such a beautiful range of voices and movement! This year’s Varnam Salon is a partnership with Young Arts - we hope you can join us. Also - there will be tea!
Presenting our 2026 Artists
Sunidhi Gurudutt (Los Angeles, CA)
Swathi Ramesh (San Jose, CA)
Ishami Dance Company ft. choreography by Akhil Joondeph* (Fremont, CA)
Roopa Mahadevan with collaborating musicians* (Oakland, CA)
Made possible by Nava Dance Theatre, Shruti Abhishek Dance, and YoungArts
Curated by Nadhi Thekkek, Preethi Ramaprasad, Shruti Abhishek
The Original Varnam Salon welcomes you back for an afternoon of Indian dance and conversation. Designed for artists to share works in progress in an informal environment, this event caters to our South Asian dancers and how they choreograph the most rigorous part of the “classical” Indian dance repertoire. The varnam, to us, represents a delicate balance between theatrical and physical prowess in many Indian dance forms. Join us in the sharing of choreography and experiences.
*** Program ***
Sunidhi Gurudutt
Ishami Dance Company:
Akhil Joondeph, Amit Patel, Divya Anbalagan, Ishika Seth, Kanchan Raju
Sindhu Natarajan on vocals, Varun Pattabhiraman on mridangam and kanjira, Kanchan Raju on keys, Vikram Ragukumar on violin, Prasant Radhakrishnan on sax, Akhil Joondeph on percussion and synths
Arranged by Akhil Joondeph and Sindhu Natarajan
*** Break ***
Swathi Ramesh
Roopa Mahadevan and co-artists:
Roopa Mahadevan, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Shiva Ramamurthi, Javi Jimenez, Andrew Harlan, Eli Knowles
QandA
*** End ***
Artists
Sunidhi Gurudutt (Long Beach, CA) developed an early interest in the performing arts and began training in Bharatanatyam under Guru Vid. Deepa Bhat. She has successfully completed her Junior, Senior, and Vidwat examinations with distinction and was a gold medalist in her Master's Degree in Dance from Jain University, Bengaluru. She has also been awarded both state and central student scholarships from the Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy and the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT).
Sunidhi presented her Rangapravesha on February 24, 2019, to critical acclaim. Her solo performances include Ananya Nruthyollasa, Kanasu, Nrithyadhare, Tribute to the Indian Armed Forces, Udaya Raaga, Sattva Purandara, Ankura Festival, and the Asian Pacific Islander Youth Forum. She has also performed in group productions such as Voices of Change (Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives), Ritu (Guru Padmini Ravi), Kalasiri (Association of Indian Forging Industry), Jvalanti (Jain University).
Sunidhi is also well-trained in Carnatic music and Konnakkol, and is passionately learning Kathak. Since 2019, she has been running her own dance school, Kalaadeepa. She feels deeply grateful to practice the art of Bharatanatyam and to contribute to the rich Guru-Shishya Parampara.
Ishami Dance Company is a contemporary dance company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that blends South Asian and global dance forms. Our mission is to center queerness, women’s voices, and experiences of the South Asian diaspora. We destabilize binaries between tradition and modernity, sparking conversations through art.
Performance highlights include our production “Pehchaan'' that premiered in 2023 and toured to New York in 2024 and Chicago in 2025. We received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text for “Pehchaan.” Other Ishami productions include "Manchapravesh" and "Mehfil: A Desi Cabaret."
Ishami has been featured at the Asian Art Museum, World Arts West Festival, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Fresh Meat Festival, Queering Dance Festival, and San Francisco Pride. We have collaborated with San Jose State University, Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers, Noorani Dance and organizations including Maitri, Narika, Home of Hope, and Art Together.
Akhil Joondeph is a dancer and choreographer from the Bay Area. His dance background includes Odissi, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Bollywood, and more. His work is interested in queerness, disrupting normativity and genre, and imagining alternative, inclusive possibilities through movement. His work traverses both commercial and contemporary worlds, ranging from viral, short dance films to evening-length works like “Manchapravesh” (2025). He is currently the creative director of Ishami Dance Company, and his choreography with Ishami has been featured in the Fresh Meat Festival, FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Mandala Makers Festival, World of Dance Choreographer Showcase, and beyond. He also composes and produces music, primarily for dance, and was the sound designer of Ishami Dance Company’s “Pehchaan” and “Mehfil,” Drasti Mody’s “Paheli,” and Farah Yasmeen Shaikh’s “Saabit Qadam.” He also regularly teaches community classes, and has performed on the main stage at San Francisco Pride, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, San Francisco International Arts Festival, and more.
Swathi Ramesh (San Jose, CA) is an accomplished dancer from the Bay Area. She completed her early dance training in the Bay Area and her arangetram under the late Smt. Padmini Ramachandran, Bangalore. Since then she has been learning from Smt. Shirisha Shashank, Chennai. She has performed on numerous occasions such as Smaran Dance festival and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana as a finalist.
Additionally, Swathi has been part of notable dance productions such as Earth Speaks, a production by Samudra Dance Creations (Artistic Director Jyotsna Vaidee), and Storm, a video production by Samudra Dance Creations which was selected for the Erasing Borders Festival. In 2025, she performed in Draupadi, a production by Abhinaya Dance Company (Artistic Director Mythili Kumar), and has previously performed as part of Jwala (also an Abhinaya production). In 2025, she also performed at the IDIA Festival in Leela Sangama and toured Canada with Spanda (Artistic Director Leela Samson). She continues to learn and perform actively in the Bay Area and in India.
Outside of dance, Swathi works as a software engineer at Uber and is passionate about technology.
Roopa Mahadevan
Hailed a “stirring voice” by the New York Times, Roopa Mahadevan is a leading second-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the American diaspora. She leads the ensemble Roopa in Flux, collaborating with musicians in jazz, soul/R&B, and free improv, directs the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective, and sings for leading Bharathanatyam and modern dancers globally.
Roopa trained in Carnatic vocal under Asha Ramesh and later Suguna Varadachari in India through the Fulbright. Roopa has performed in diverse venues from Chennai’s Music Academy to London’s Sadler Wells to Jazz at Lincoln Center, SFJazz, Carnegie Hall, and the MET Museum. She is a soloist on Christopher Tin’s Grammy Award-winning album Calling All Dawns, and been in residence at Banff Center, Joe’s Pub, Hedgebrook, and Ryder Farm.
Roopa is also a composer and passionate teacher. In a previous avatar, Roopa worked in public health policy, following degrees from Stanford University.
Andrew Harlan is a composer, bassist, and sound artist. His music exists at the intersections of contemporary chamber music, experimental club music, free improvisation, and dystopian sound design. His works for instruments and electronics often operate cinematically in an effort to immerse listeners in palpable sonic worlds. His music has been presented across the USA and Europe by musicians and ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, Metropolis Ensemble, loadbang, and Wet Ink Ensemble, among others.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the loadbang Commissioning Competition, Boston Conservatory Sinfonietta Composition Competition, George Ladd prix de Paris, and a grant from the Swedish Arts Council. From 2023-2024, he was supported by the J. William Fulbright Commission to be a visiting composer at the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague (HAMU). He has also held residencies at the Cité International des Arts, Zámek Niměřice, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
In 2023, he completed the IRCAM Cursus in composition and computer music and he holds a PhD in Composition from UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technology.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon (she/her) is an artist at the margins of her American and Korean identities who plays the violin, composes, teaches, and organizes arts communities in a career that spans over two decades. Hyeyung’s experience of immigrating to the U.S. from Korea at the age of 7 and later traveling to her motherland to experience Korea’s shaman rituals and folk performances continues to inspire and inform her creative work. She joined the SF-based Del Sol Quartet in April 2023, an ensemble that has commissioned or premiered thousands of works by composers since 1992. Upcoming Del Sol projects include the World Premiere of Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, a collaboration with SF’s first Chinese-American poet laureate Genny Lim in the 2025-2026 season and ongoing concert series at the Angel Island Immigration Center. The podcast “Sounds Current” about Del Sol’s Angel Island Project was an official selection at the Tribeca Festival 2024 and won a gold award at the Signal Awards. Hyeyung was a violinist in the Chiara String Quartet for 18 years before celebrating the ensemble’s last season in 2018. The Chiara held residencies at Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Elihu Knowles is a composer, multiinstrumentalist, producer and engineer currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is best known for his work with East Bay experimental rock group Pateka and his earlier solo work as Aaron Space & his Terrestrial Underlings. Knowles performs and tours regularly, working as a sideman alongside artists like Bill Orcutt, Joel Robinow, Oakland CA folk rock band Brown Dog, Rent Romus's Lifesblood Ensemble. He engineers & produces at Airship Laboratories, and books the ongoing "Jazz On Tuesdays" series at the Little Hill Lounge in El Cerrito.
Shiva Ramamurthi is a disciple of Violin Maestro Shri Delhi P. Sunder Rajan. He was introduced to Carnatic Music at the age of 4 by Smt. Padma Kutty.
He has performed in various venues throughout the U.S. and India including the prestigious Music Academy in Chennai.
He has had He received the "Best Violinist" award by the Music Academy at the 2017 Spirit of Youth Festival. He is a regular performer with many top artists of the current generation. He is also well versed in Western violin and has performed many multi genre fusion performances.
He has had the privilege of collaborating with A.R. Rahman and has been featured as a violinist on multiple Netflix productions.
He is currently working as a professional in the field of cybersecurity specializing in AI security and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Javi Jiménez (2025). Born in Madrid Spain, Javi Jiménez has been playing and studying guitar for over 25 years. In 2007 he graduated from the Conservatory of Jazz Music in Barcelona Spain. During this time, he discovered the music of Django Reinhardt, fell in love with it and started studying it.
In 2010 Javi moved to California, since then he has been performing & working as a studio musician. He composes, arranges and performs in his own band Barrio Manouche, a Blend of flamenco, Jazz Manouche and Latin rhythms. The band has played at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Outside Lands, Django Festival and Stern Grove Festival and has opened/share stages with national and international acts such as Devotchka (Little Miss Sunshine), Pink Martini, Boulou & Elios Ferré, La Santa Cecilia.
Javi is also an educator and leads the guitar department at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA).