Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thank you for visiting! This campaign has concluded, but you can continue to support Dhirana here.
We are endlessly grateful for your support and are so proud of the show that came together. We hope you enjoyed the many artists and hope that you will continue to contribute to the Birmingham Free Clinic.
Although our EngagePitt campaign has ended, you can still contributed to Dhirana here.
With love,
Stuthi & Roma, your 2022 Sponsorship Co-Chairs, and your 2022 Sponsorship Assistant Chairs Dhruthi Gundurao, Vandana Macha, Manveer Athwal, and Sumedha Sripada.
We’ve said it a million times and we’ll say it again: Thank You for your support and please support us as we wrap up our Engage Pitt campaign!
We are just three days left from the end of our EngagePitt campaign and we hope you all can help us reach our goal! We are so close! Thank you so much for donating to Dhirana – your support will help us host an in-person Dhirana 2022 this Spring.
Here are just a few reasons to donate:
As always, please spread our message to family and friends, so that we can make this year’s show better than ever before!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all from our Dhirana family! We are thinking of you during this holiday season, and we are truly grateful for your donations and continued support. Without your help, we would not be able to host the Dhirana competition to spread awareness of classical dance and contribute to the Birmingham Free Clinic!
We also want to highlight that we only have 10 days of our Engage Pitt campaign remaining! Please continue to spread our mission to family and friends so that we can host yet another successful Dhirana show. With 10 days left, it is also the perfect time to showcase a decade of Dhirana; so here are a series of logos and photos of our winning teams. Enjoy!
Now is the time for our final “Meet the Board” for Dhirana 2022! This segment is dedicated to the Outreach, Public Relations, Decorations, and Logistics Committees.
The Outreach Committee communicates with the Birmingham Free Clinic and organizes bonding and social events. The Outreach Co-chairs this year are sophomores Somya Thakur, majoring in Business Information Systems and Marketing, Yamini Yepuri, majoring in Psychology, and Neha Adda, majoring in Neuroscience. Somya, Yamini, and Neha have already organized some great bonding events for Dhirana members and the food for out latest events, including Sponsorship Gala! The Outreach Assistant Chairs are Akshita Sharma, Shreya Boppudi, and Anjali Talluru.
Aleena Somy and Devna Mathur are the Public Relations (PR) Co-chairs for Dhirana 2022. Aleena is a senior majoring in Rehabilitation Science and Devna is a junior majoring in Psychology. This duo creatively designs social media posts and collaborates on different ways to promote Dhirana to the local community. You can visit our social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram to see some of Aleena and Devna’s work! The PR Assistant Chairs—Sahithi Palle, Krishna Patel, and Ganesh Selvakumar--work with the Co-chairs on their various projects.
Next up is our Logistics committee chaired by senior Interdisciplinary Studies major, Madhura Leninkannan. Madhura creates roles and timetables for each Dhirana member to ensure all our events run smoothly! She is joined by Vidhi Patel and Jeevanjot Pabla as her assistant chairs.
Last, but not least, is the Decorations Chair, Yashica Kagithapu, a junior Biology and Communications Major. The beautiful decorations you might have seen at Gala this year were all thanks to Yashica, along with assistant chairs Mahitha Vivek and Keya Dixit! Keep an eye out for the show day decorations.
Thank you for taking the time to read about all the committees that make Dhirana possible! As you can see, there are many integral parts that are required to organize Dhirana, but most of all, it is the help of sponsors like yourself that even make the event possible. For that, we are beyond grateful!
A few weeks back, we also hosted our Sixth Annual Sponsorship Gala! We are glad so many of you could be there. For those who couldn’t, or who would like to watch again, here is a link to the event: https://youtu.be/U4oKmV4RH30. This year, seven talented dance schools from across Pittsburgh and the Midwest and Pitt’s classical dance team Nrityamala performed beautiful choreographies. Thank you to all the dancers and gurus for their hard work and dedication to classical dance!
Welcome to our second segment of “Meet the Board” for Dhirana 2021! We will be introducing the following committees: Freshman Chairs, Registration, Liaison, Ticketing, Fundraising, Mixer, Design!
The Freshman Co-chairs this year are Sanjana Murthy and Shraddha Vemula. Sanjana is majoring in Biology and Devna is majoring in Psychology. Sanjana and Shradda are taking on new roles this year as a part of E-Board, assisting on a variety of crucial tasks!
The Registration Chair this year is Shreya Babu – a junior Sociology and Administration of Justice major. Shreya oversees creating the registration and exhibition packets, organizing team gifts, and helping select the competing teams. Nithya Kasibhatla and Risha Musuku are the Registration Assistant Chairs.
Our Liaison Chair is Mitali Belambe – a junior majoring in Computational Biology. Mitali is responsible for team hospitality, from booking the hotel where teams will stay during show weekend, to providing each team a Liaison so that they can navigate Pittsburgh easily. Brunda Bellamkonda and Avni Nangia are the Liaison Assistant Chairs.
Maliha Tayeb is our Ticketing Chair. Maliha is a junior majoring in Molecular Biology and Sociology. She is responsible for managing and keeping track of the ticket sales at our many events leading up to and including show day! Meghana Vemulpalli and Anvita Bhattad are the Ticketing Assistant Chairs.
The Fundraising Committee organizes events for students to participate in to raise money for Dhirana. The two chairs this year are Anisha Mandava–a senior Neuroscience and Religious Studies major–and Arpun Bains–a senior Biology major. In addition, Malini Harinath and Neil Rawat are the Assistant Chairs for the Fundraising Committee. This semester, the Fundraising Committee hosted a successful Trivia Night as well as mehendi and restaurant fundraisers! More events are coming soon!
Aishwarya Mukundan, Navjot Pabal, and Meera Tikku are the Mixer Co-chairs for Dhirana 2022. Aishwarya is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Chemistry, Navjot is a sophomore majoring in Architecture, and Meera is a senior majoring in Communications. The Assistant Chairs, Manasa Chillarige, Krishna Nayak, and Vinitha Vavilathota work alongside Aishwarya, Navjot, and Meera to plan games for Mixer–a bonding event that occurs the day before the Dhirana competition.
The Design Co-chairs this year are Akash Ramalingam and Mansi Avunoori. Akash is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Primate Anthropology, and Mansi is a sophomore majoring in Biology. Akash and Mansi use their technical skills to collaborate on numerous creative projects such as spirit-wear, videos that promote Dhirana, and the official Dhirana 2022 logo—check out the Engage Pitt video on this page! The Design Committee also includes three Assistant Chairs: Sneha Bathey, Abinaya Ravichandren, and Shay Mallick.
We will be introducing our final few committee chairs in our next “Meet the Board” update! We hope you are enjoying getting to know the various committees that plan Dhirana.
This week we are starting our “Meet the Board” updates for Dhirana 2021!
First up, we have our Executive Board and Sponsorship Committee!
The E-Board consists of five hard-working students passionate for classical dance. The two Co-Directors this year are Mythri Sundar and Paushaly Sau. Mythri is a senior Urban Studies major and Paushaly is a senior majoring in Biology and History. Kavya Singh is our Business Manager–a junior Math and Economics major. Dhirana’s Secretary is Avani Mathur who is a senior majoring in Biology and Sociology. Finally, Jothika Gorur–a senior majoring in Sociology–is the Nrityamala Representative. This team delegates general body meetings, oversees the committees, organizes event logistics, and handles the club’s finances. Mythri, Paushaly, Kavya, Avani, and Jothika are the leaders of Dhirana and are diligently working towards making Dhirana 2022 possible in a virtual setting!
Our Sponsorship Committee is responsible for reaching out to sponsors, applying to grants, and organizing this EngagePitt campaign! Stuthi Iyer and Roma Usgoankar are the Sponsorship Co-chairs this year; you may have recognized their names from sponsorship emails. Stuthi is a junior majoring in the History and Philosophy of Science and Roma is a junior in the Pharmacy school. The Sponsorship Committee also includes four Assistant Chairs––Vandana Macha, Sumedha Sripada, Manveer Athwal, Dhruthi Gundurao who work closely with the Sponsorship Chairs (and we are grateful for their help).
Be on the lookout for our next “Meet the Board” update! Until then, stay safe and enjoy the rest of your week!
Additionally, we want to provide you access to our 2021-22 Sponsorship Packet, so you are aware of what benefits your donation affords you on show day. Check them out at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15DLdcaitavfeF8Gw-tsakB5cTVf0PiFd/view?usp=sharing.
Alarippu is the first dance piece a Bharatnatyam dancer learns and performs. It is a dance which offers respect to God and the audience. This donation will be used to pay for the VIP sponsors' and judges' gifts.
Pushpanjali is the opening dance in a performance. It is a salutation to the lord of dance Nataraja, the Guru (dance teacher), the musicians, and the audience. This donation will be used to pay for program printing.
Jatiswaram is the next dance in a performance after Pushpanjali. It is a technical dance that showcases the form of Bharatnatyam, without any accompanying verses. This donation will be used to pay for event promotion.
Kouvtuam is a piece that combines technique and expression in praise of a God. This donation will be used to pay for team hospitality.
Thillana is an intense, rhythmic piece which is usually performed at the end of a dance performance. It is one of the hardest dances to master technique-wise. This donation will be used to pay for trophies and prize money.
Padams are pieces of reverence and expression during devotional religious prayer. The music that accompanies this dance tends to be more emotional. This donation will be used to pay for lighting & sound.
Varnams are the centerpiece of an arangetram (Bharatnatyam debut recital). These dances are performed to the most complex pieces of Carnatic music. This donation will be used to pay for the Soldiers and Sailors venue. Contribute $100 for every year of Dhirana's existence and help us reach a tenth of our goal!
