Neena Gulati - Founder/Director
was born in New Delhi, India, and began dancing when she was only four years old. She performed her Arangetram at the Fine Arts Theater in New Delhi in 1961.

Critics applauded her debut with comments such as the following from Youth of India: "Neena has an inimitable style. The flawless sense of rhythm and deep devotion with which she dances with abandon places her as one of the leading young Bharata Natyam dancers in the Capital. She is intensity and enchantment.." "...there is not one in Delhi's crop of young performers to match Kumari Neena's accurate style and her creativeness."

A master of the Panthanallur style of Bharat Natyam, Neena Gulati has received high critical acclaim for her professional performances throughout India and the United States. In 1964, Neena was invited to perform at the United Nations General Assembly. Since moving to the U.S. in 1967, she has performed at countless functions and universites across the continent and in England.

Neena has taught at Brown University, and has been guest artist in several Universites and schools in New England. She gives lecture- demonstrations, explaining and demonstrating her art form to varied audiences. Neena has collaborated with many artists of different disciplines, including actors, musicians, dancers and poets. She has been involved in numerous benefit performences and has choreographed dance dramas. An energetic and loving teacher, Neena is an excellent example of the guru-shishya tradition of teaching that has preserved the purity of Indian classical dance since the time of the vedas.

In 1993, the Boston Globe described her as "a pioneer in bringing classical Indian dance in all its nuance to New England."

Wendy Jehlen - Creative Director
has been a student and performer of the Bharata Natyam style of classical South Indian dance since the age of seven. In the United States she has studied under Neena Gulati, at the Triveni School of Dance in Brookline, where she is presently Creative Director and co-choreographer. She has also studied in Madras, India at Bharata Kalanjali under the internationally acclaimed dancers and choreographers, the Dhananjayans.

Wendy has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and India. Wendy's choreography incorporates her training and experience in South Indian classical dance, Contemporary dance and other styles of movement, especially focusing on the expressive element in dance, and working with texts from mystical traditions including the Sufi tradition of the Islamic world and the Bhakti tradition in South Asia.

Recently she has choreographed and danced with a group called FabricaMusica, based at Fabrica, SpA, a communications research center located outside of Venice, Italy and funded by a generous grant from United Colors of Benetton.

Wendy is a graduate of Brown University with a degree in Storytelling and Performance. She received her Masters in Religion and Performance from Harvard Divinity School in May 2000.

Tara Ahmed - Director's Assistant
began her studies in Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi with Neena Gulati at the age of five; she furthered her training in Kuchipudi with Dr. Anuradha Jonnalagadda in Hyderabad, India. Tara has performed and taught in India, Turkey, Brazil and the U.S. She has also choreographed and collaborated with international artists from Balinese, African, Brazilian, Japanese, and classical European music and dance traditions. While she has studied other dance forms, including West African, she focuses on the Kuchipudi style.

Tara has given workshops and lecture/demonstrations throughout the Northeastern U.S., including such venues as tht Adrienne Block Middle School in Queens, NY, and Boston University in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelors degree in Dance Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Critics in Boston gave her rave reviews for her recent performance in the title role of the dance drama "Chitra". "Tara Ahmed, dancing the role of Chitra with bells on her ankles, reigned on the stage... a deeply sensual and imposing presence..." Theodore Bale Bay Windows

Sumithira Anand -
 
Sumithira Anand specializes in the Kuchipudi style of dance, which originates from the Kuchipudi village in Andhra Pradesh. She has a training of  about ten years in India under her Guru Smt. Anuradha Venkatakrishna ,a disciple of the renowned Kulapathi shri P.V.G. Krishna Sharma.  Her innate skills and perfection drew her Guru's attention,who rigorously trained her special student into an acclaimed performer.  Sumithira has given over seventy performances with her Guru's troop  in various prestigious stages and festivals in TamilNadu, including playing the central role of Krishna in the two hour long dance ballet, Gopi Krishna.   Dance critics have appreciated her mastery of the art and her pure and graceful movements.  She has won several awards at inter-school and inter-university dance competitions and has been highly praised for her creative choreographies at school and University.  Though a native of Tamil, Sumithira learnt to become fluent in Telugu due to her passion for Kuchipudi and to gain an in-depth interpretation of the songs for Kuchipudi Dance. 

Sumithira holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and continues to passionately nurture her Kuchipudi skills along with her engineering profession.  She relentlessly pursues to expand her repertoire and continues to visit her Guru in India to participate in workshops and to give performances. With the blessings of her guru she has now grown into an good teacher. 

Mary Koperski - Dance Instructor
began dancing ballet and afro-Caribbean styles at age 13. At 17, she was accepted to NYU School of the Arts as a dance performance major. At NYU, she was introduced to Classical Indian Dance by Ritha Devi, teaching the Kuchipudi style. Enamored with the style, Mary studied under Ritha Devi in NYC and subsequently moved to Boston to deepen her study under Neena Gulati in the Bharata Natyam style, performing frequently through out the New England area. She completed her arangetram, under Neenaji's guidance, in 2006. She also completed a training course in yoga therapy with A.G. Mohan in Chennai, India (2006).

Mary has taught ballet, yoga and Bharata Natyam in many venues including Kripalu Institute, Khalsa Women's Summer Camp (New Mexico), NorthEast Youth Ballet and Somerville elementary after-school programs. She incorporates her knowledge of western dance styles and yoga to make Bharata Natyam as accessible as possible to her students. She loves to work with beginning dance students, both youngsters and adults, and pays particular attention to body alignment and proper posture.

Mary holds a BFA in Dance from Empire State College. She is a certified Ayurvedic Consultant (Kripalu Institute), assisting individuals in establishing optimal well-being through a balanced lifestyle.

She continues her studies both in dance with Neenaji and through her daily yoga practice. She currently performs with the Triveni Ensemble.