Pooja Ganesh

Pooja Ganesh is a Kathak dancer, choreographer, and vocalist with over 17 years of performance experience across India and the United States. She has trained for more than a decade under Smt. Nirupama Rajendra and Shri T.D. Rajendra, learning Karanas — the movement vocabulary of the Natyashastra — from Smt. Nirupama, and has attended Kathak workshops with Padma Bhushan Kumudini Lakhia and Pandit Birju Maharaj. With Abhinava Dance Company she has performed at the Mysore Dasara Festival, Bangalore International Film Festival, ZEE5 Awards, and Alvas NudiSiri, and in 2024–25 toured 11 cities across the US and Canada with the company's signature production. In the US she has continued training under Parul Shah and Smt. Nirmala Madhava (Pampa), works as a collaborative artist with other companies including Naatak, and was part of Navatman's Mahabharata, which has been selected for film festivals. She has created and presented original works at Silambam Houston, YUVA Bharati, the New York Kathak Festival, Seattle ACME, and House of Kala, and has performed at Seattle Theatre Group and for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, as well as leading Kathak ensembles for the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana and Melharmony Festival. With flamenco dancer Eve Salonen she performs as Tatkaar y Taconeo, a Kathak–flamenco cross-cultural project whose work "Steps of Two Worlds" premiered in April 2025 through House of Kala; the duo are among the chosen artists for the James Ray Residency and Touring Project at the Seattle International Dance Festival 2026 and have been invited to the 2026 San Francisco International Arts Festival. A trained vocalist of over 18 years under Padma Srinivasan, Shri Narahari Dixit, and Para. Manjunath, she also works professionally as a hardware engineer.