ABOUT
MANDALA ARTS AND CULTURE was founded by Jai Govinda in 1999. As artistic managing director, Jai Govinda has created a space for excellence in the Indian classical dance forms in Canada. The chore of Mandala’s activities is its bharata natyam teaching program, recognized for 18 years by the Canada Arts Training Funds of Heritage Canada for disseminating quality professional training in bharata natyam in British Columbia. Over the years, 46 students have graduated from our teaching program, and many are continuing a career in the performing arts, teaching, creating and performing. Aside from its teaching program, Mandala arts and culture has presented local, national and international Indian classical dance artists that have included: Priyadarshini Govind and orchestra, Janaki Rangarajan, Meenakshi Srinivasan, Sujata Mohapatra, Lavanya Ananth, Savitha Shastri, Rahul Acharya, Renjith and Vijna, Akaash Odedra, Bhavajan Kumar, Navia Natarajan, Thomas Vo Van Tao and Sampradaya Dance Creations. For 8 years Mandala presented an annual abhinaya intensive by world renowned bharata natyam artist Smt. Bragha Bessell from Chennai. Mandala has helped and supported the growth of many young artists, and has also collaborated with many local and national artists on productions such as: Narcissus (commissioned by and premiered at the Kalanidhi Fine Arts/ Toronto) , Aum Namah Shivaya ( commissioned by the Judith Marcuse’s “Kiss Project”, and selected to open “Dancers For Life” at the Vancouver Playhouse), The Blue God ( premiered in Vancouver and performed for “The year of India” in Ottawa), Kama ( commissioned for the official opening of The Scotiabank Dance Centre), The Monk And The Courtesan (commissioned by EDAM), The Temptations of Buddha ( with an original score by Vidyasagar Vankayala), and the Tales Of The Ramayana (a collaboration with Vancouver Moving Theatre nominated for 6 Jessie Awards with 12 sold out performances). In partnership with The Dance Centre, Mandala presented the first Indian classical dance festival, “Gait to the spirit”, for 5 consecutive years. Over the years of the pandemic, Mandala commissioned two new works by international bharata natyam artists: “Sannidhanam” by Rama Vaidyanathan and ensemble, and “Virodhabhasa” by Navia Natarajan. Mandala also presented a series of 4 bharata natyam performances on VIMEO by local dancers Kiruthika Rathanaswami, Malavika Santhosh, Shilpa Shankar and Grihalakshmi Soundarapandian. Mandala encourages and provides opportunities for local, national and international collaborations, partnership and exchanges. It is committed to introduce the dance style to various audiences through performances, workshops, lectures and demonstrations. Mandala Arts and Culture society is a registered charitable organization.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Kiruthika Rathanaswami is the New Artistic Director of Mandala Arts & Culture Society. She has been under the guidance and mentorship of Jai Govinda, Founder and past Artistic Director of Mandala Arts & Culture Society in Vancouver for the past 28 years. She completed her bharata natyam arangetram (graduation) at the Jai Govinda Dance Academy in 2004 and since then has been a part of many of Mandala's professional productions and presentations as a soloist, and ensemble. She was also a Company Dancer (2019-2022) and Associate Artist (2022-2024) for Nova Dance (Toronto).
As a soloist she has performed extensively in Vancouver, BC and other cities such as Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Santa Barbara, California and Baltimore, Maryland. Some of those notable festivals include Canada Dance Festival, Mandala Arts Gait to the Spirit, Samparadaya Dance Creations Horizon Series, Expanse Festival, Alberta Dance Alliance Feats Festival, Nebula Dance HH1 Dance Festival, Theatre Network Nextfest, 17th World Sanskrit Conference, The Collective Baltimore Dance Invitational, NewWorks Dance All Sorts, On the Boards Solo: A Festival of Dance, and Past Governor General of Canada Michelle Jean visit to Vancouver to many a few. Kiruthika premiered three new bharata Natyam margams in 2019 (Vancouver/Edmonton), 2015 (Vancouver) and 2013 (Vancouver) choreographed by Jai Govinda, Gurus B. Bhanumati, Sheela Chandrashekar and Bragha Bessell. She has also danced in other company works such as Nova Dance's Svāhā that premiered in Toronto (September 2022) and Vancouver (July 2023), Sujit Vaidya's Breath in the Fragrance (2023&2025) and Shakti Dance/Anusha Fernando's Sky Dancers (2024). Kiruthika most recently premiered her new production Shiva (He) - Shakti (Her) with co-dancer Malavika Santhosh and choreographed by Jai Govinda in December 2024 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.
As a choreographer she has co-lead Nova Dance’s Svāhā Body Choir in Vancouver (2023) and worked with Dance Xtreme Students from Victoria High School in Edmonton to choreograph a work titled “Linked Expressions” for Nextfest (2020) curated by Good Women Dance Collective.
Kiruthika has taught group and private classes for workshops, festivals and schools/institutions such as Mandala Arts, Nova Dance’s Svāhā Body Choir Vancouver Rehearsal Lead, Sattvika Danse (Montreal), HH11 Dance Festival Master Class Series (University of California, Santa Barbarba), Annual Grande Prairie Children’s Festival (Grande Prairie) and SFU Dance Department (Vancouver).
In 2010 she received the Arts Fellowship from the Shastri Indo- Canadian Institute and trained with Gurus B. Bhanumati and Sheela Chandrashekar of Nrityakalamandiram in Bangalore, India. She was also featured as the lead dancer in the documentary film "The Great Night of Shiva" (2011) which was broadcast nationally on Vision TV, Canada. In the summer of 2015, Kiruthika was invited to speak as panelist at a National Dance Symposium "Beyond Boundaries - Imagining a New Future for South Asian Dance in Canada" by Sampradaya Dance Creations in Mississauga, Ontario. Kiruthika is the recipient of the 2012 City of Vancouver "The Mayor's Arts Award" for emerging artist in Dance and the 2016 Dancing Damsel Women Achiever Award for the Performing Arts.
Kiruthika continues to learn and expand her bharata natyam vocabulary through residences and workshops such as Nova Dance Svaha Creation Lab (2023/2019) and Deep End Week (2019), Samparada Dance Creations Dance Intense (2009, 2010, 2011), and Master Abhinaya Classes with Mrs. Bragha Bessell (2017-2022).
More information about Kiruthika visit www.kiruthika.net