Shreya Raghuraman, a rising junior at High School South, has been studying classical Indian dancing since she was seven. On Saturday, July 16, she performs at an Arangetram, a ceremonial dance marking the beginning of a dancer’s life. The ancient temple dance of Southern India, Bharatanatyam, includes body movements, facial expressions, hand gestures, footwork, costumes, lyrics, and music. “Its most powerful feature is the inherent ability to express meaning and emotion and to transmit an experience to the audience,” reads the invitation.
“The event is linked to her graduation from the dance school and marks the understanding and skill the student has acquired with years of learning the art form,” says her mother, Radhika Raghuraman, who works with information management at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Her father, Raghuraman Gopalakrishnan, works in the financial group at BlackRock Solutions.
Shreya Raghuraman was born in Bombay and moved to California when she was four years-old. The family moved to Plainsboro when she was in fifth grade. She attended Millstone River and Grover Middle schools.
Besides singing Indian classical music for 10 years, she has been in her school’s concert choirs since eighth grade. “It was definitely an honor to sing at Carnegie Hall with the choir,” she says. “I’m looking forward to traveling to Italy with the choir this year.” She also plays basketball and tennis with Plainsboro Recreation teams.
Shreya studies at Nrityanjali Institute of Dance in North Brunswick and has been dedicating four hours to rehearsing her dance every day. “It helps to build up stamina needed,” she says. At home she practices to a recording and rehearses at the school several times a week. The teacher presenting her is Guru Ramya Ramnarayan.
“It takes two-and-a-half hours to get ready with the help of the school’s make-up artist,” she says. “The school hires a live orchestra from India to perform at all of the graduations this summer.”
Friends, aunts, and uncles will be present but the highlight is that her grandparents flew in from India to be part of the event. “I am so excited and the entire event is overwhelming,” says Shreya.
Always interested in community service, Shreya initiated a Save Darfur benefit when she was in the eighth grade. She has more recently organized an awareness drive for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Using tools she learned at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, she organized a short musical show for Save the Children, Japan. “Giving back to the community means a lot to her and she hopes to continue undertaking service projects such as these in the future,” says her mother.
Shreya requests that donations be made to Doctors Without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org), Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (www.trentonsoupkitchen.org), or AID India (www.aidindia.org).
— Lynn Miller
Arangetram and Bharatanatyam: Shreya Raghuraman, Nrityanjali Institute of Dance, 1018 Route 601, Belle Mead. Saturday, July 16, 4:30 p.m. The ancient dance that originated in southern India focuses on body movements, facial expressions, hand gestures, footwork, costumes, lyrics, and music. Free-will donations benefit Doctors Without Borders, AID-India, and Trenton Soup Kitchen. Register by E-mail to Sr.arrangetram@gmail.com.
