THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! With your help, we were able to raise an incredible $6,949 for Dhirana 2020! We would like to thank everyone who donated to our campaign and supported us over the past few months. We hope you will continue to support our organization in the years to come!

Our show this year will be held on February 22, 2020 at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum here in Oakland. We look forward to seeing you then! Until then, we wish you a Happy New Year!

We are so close to the end of our campaign and reaching our goal amount of $6000! With your help, we can reach our goal in one last push! Support Dhirana 2020 and all of our dancers today by donating to our campaign #respecttheclassics

Happy holidays from our Dhirana family to yours! We want to take the time to not only spread some holiday cheer but also thank you for your kind generosity during this campaign. With less than two weeks to go in our campaign, we are so close to reaching our $6,000 goal. We hope that you will be able to continue to support Dhirana and our mission throughout this holiday season! 

We hope you have as much fun watching the video linked below as we did making it :)

Thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors for your generous donations so far! With the support of our community, we were able to reach our goal of $4000 with almost three weeks left to spare. 

As you might know, there are many more costs involved in running a successful competition. From covering rental costs at Soldiers and Sailors to tech support on the day of the show, every donation we receive helps us make Dhirana better than ever. That is why we are raising our goal to $6000! We have three weeks left until our campaign ends, and we hope that with your continued support we will be able to reach our goal!

With Thanksgiving season upon us, we would like to take the time to share with you a few things we are grateful for this year. We are grateful for amazing family and friends (and our holiday break before finals)! We are grateful for Dhirana and its legacy; through this competition, we have been able to showcase the unique culture of Indian classical dance while also giving back to the local Pittsburgh community and forging long lasting relationships!

Most importantly, we are grateful for you, our wonderful and supportive sponsors! With our campaign closing in less than a month, everyone in Dhirana would like to thank our wonderful sponsors. Without your support, we would not be able to host our competition and help the Birmingham Free Clinic year after year. We hope you enjoy the holiday season and continue helping us reach our goal!

P.S. - we have a little Thanksgiving joke for you!

What is the turkey’s favorite dessert?

Peach gobbler!

Happy Thanksgiving and stay tuned for our next update!

In our final Meet the Board segment, we will be introducing the Decorations, Social, Ticketing, Public Relations, and Logistics committees!

The Decorations committee creatively makes all of the ornate decorations for our events. This year, our decoration chair is Sri Akkineni, a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. The Social committee plans events to help all of our members bond as an organization throughout the year! This year, our Social chair is Meghana Akula, a junior Neuroscience and Spanish major. The Public Relations committee helps to spread the word about Dhirana through social media, including all of our fundraisers and events. This year, our public relations chairs are Sruti Padmanabhan, a Health Information Management major, and Shikha Puri, a Biology major. They are both seniors! Our Decoration, Social, and Public chairs are pictured first below (from left to right in the picture are Sri Akkineni, Meghana Akula, Sruti Padmanabhan, and Shikha Puri). 

The Ticketing committee handles and manages all ticketing matters for all the events we hold throughout the year. This year, our ticketing chairs are Madhura Leninkannan and Mythri Sundar! Madhura is a sophomore studying Biology and Mythri is a sophomore Urban Studies major. Our Logistics committee works hard to plan out all of the specific details for show day to ensure that it runs without a hitch! Our logistics chair this year is Avani Mathur, a sophomore studying Biology and Sociology. Our Ticketing and Logistics chairs are pictured in the second photo below (from left to right in the picture are Madhura Leninkannan, Mythri Sundar, and Avani Mathur). 

We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting the board and seeing all of the amazing people in our organization who make Dhirana possible! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a holiday treat from Dhirana :) 

In our next Meet the Board segment, we will be introducing the registration, mixer, liaison, design, and fundraising committees!

The Mixer committee plans the mixer for the night before the show, which gives the teams a chance to relax, meet other dancers, and have some fun before show day. This year, our mixer chairs are Niketa Kulkarni and Saachi Daga. Niketa is a senior economics and statistics major, and Saachi is a sophomore majoring in Finance and Marketing! Next, the Fundraising committee plans various events throughout the year to help raise funds to help us make the show spectacular! This year, our Fundraising Chairs are Riya Patel and Dhara Parikh. Riya is a junior studying Economics, and Dhara is a junior Psychology major. Our Fundraising and Mixer committees are pictured in the first photo below (left to right in the picture are Riya Patel, Dhara Parikh, Niketa Kularni, and Saachi Daga).

The Registration Committee organizes the audition process for dance teams and makes their application experience as smooth as possible. This year, our registration chair is Ragini Devala, a senior Finance and Accounting major! The Design committee creates all of the graphics and marketing materials for Dhirana such as our official logo, flyers, website, and apparel. This year, our design chairs are Nihanth Kotte, a Computer Science major, and Sagar Kamath, a Civil Engineering major. Both of them are seniors!  Our Liaison committee brings together student liaisons to welcome in our competing teams and provide them a smooth experience during their weekend here in Pittsburgh. Our liaison chair this year is Juhi Mehta, a senior studying Neuroscience and Sociology! Our Registration, Design, and Liaison committee is pictured in the second photo below (left to right in the picture are Ragini Devala, Nihanth Kotte, Sagar Kamath, and Juhi Mehta).

Our final Meet the Board segment is coming up in one week, so stay tuned to meet the rest of our wonderful board! Until then, we hope you have an amazing week! :)

It’s time to Meet the Board! This week, we will be introducing our Executive Board and Sponsorship Committee:

Our E-Board is the magician behind the curtain that makes all of Dhirana possible! They work tirelessly to coordinate, manage, approve, and organize all Dhirana events and committees to ensure that we meet our goals and create an amazing show. Our co-directors this year are Aditi Sharma and Amika Patel. Aditi is a senior majoring in Rehabilitation Sciences on the Pre-Physical Therapy track. Amika is a senior majoring in Accounting and Business Information Systems with a minor in Economics. Our business manager this year is Shaunak Digambar; he is a senior majoring in Neuroscience. Nithya Ganesh is our secretary and she is a senior majoring in Psychology. Finally, our Nrityamala representative for this year is Anagha Arunkumar, a senior majoring in Neuroscience! Our wonderful E-Board is pictured first below (From left to right: Aditi, Anagha, Shaunak, Amika, Nithya). 

The Sponsorship Committee reaches out to sponsors (like you!), applies for grants, and hosts the Sponsorship Gala in preparation for Dhirana. We work hard to raise the funds needed to run the show so that we are able to donate all of our profits from the show to the Birmingham Free Clinic. The co-chairs this year are Anu Jayachandran (right) and Sahana Sangappa (left), pictured second below. Anu is a junior double majoring in Anthropology and Molecular Biology, and Sahana is a Senior majoring in Molecular Biology. The sponsorship committee is also made up of four assistant chairs who work hard alongside the chairs to reach our donation goal for the year! Their names are Liz, Sree, Pranitha, and Arvind. We could not do what we do without the help of each and every member of our committee :)

Stay tuned in the coming weeks to meet the rest of the committees that help make Dhirana possible!

*All photo credits are to Sareena Fayaz*

Happy Halloween! We just wrapped up our Fourth Annual Sponsorship Gala this past Sunday, and it was a blast! This year, we had five different dance schools encompassing three styles of classical dance performing at our Gala- a huge thank you to each of the gurus and dancers who took the time to prepare and perform at our show. We are grateful to have had this chance to support so many young dancers, and we appreciate everyone who helped make our Gala a success. 

In the past few days since we began our campaign, we have reached a milestone 15% of our goal! We are blessed to have this kind of support, and we are thankful to each and every one of our sponsors. With your help, we will be able to run a professional competition which can illuminate the true beauty and capability of classical Indian dance to a wider audience than ever before! 

Lastly, we have a quick little Halloween treat for you:

Where do ghosts go on vacation?

Mali-boo!

We wish you a spooky Halloween!

[Pictured below: The Courtyard Dancers performed a piece from their touring kathak ballet Riyaaz, featuring (left to right) Amogha Vijayvargiya, Catherine Nalesnik, Sonali Dadoo, and Director Naina Green]