BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Jyothsna Sainath – President
Jyothsna started learning Bharatanatyam in Bengaluru, India, at a young age and has been a student of renowned Gurus, namely the late Guru Padmini Ramachandran, Guru Radha Sridhar and the late Guru Narmada. It was under the loving tutelage of Guru Narmada, a student of Guru Tanjavoor Kittappa Pillai that Jyothsna evolved as a performer. She has also learned the Karanas from late Guru Sundari Santhanam, a senior student of the scholar Guru Dr. Padma Subramaniam. Jyothsna’s performance and choreography are informed by these various influences.
Jyothsna has been a recipient of Government of India scholarships throughout the course of her dancing education. Having performed her debut when she was 16 years old, she has gone on to combine a keen academic interest in dance with wide-ranging performing experience from dance ballets to solos to workshops, in India and elsewhere.
She has an MA in Performing Arts from Bangalore University, India; a course that she topped. She is also an auditioned ‘A’ Grade solo artiste for Doordarshan National Network, the television channel of the Government of India.
On moving to the US, Jyothsna has performed widely within the US and has conducted Bharatanatyam workshops and Master classes at various institutions & Universities in the Salt Lake valley and has been a guest choreographer at the Department of Dance, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Jyothsna was awarded Individual Artist Career Empowerment Grants by the Salt Lake City Arts Council in 2022 and 2023 in the Tier I category to undertake arts projects in the valley. She also received an Artist Scholarship from Utah Division of Arts and Museums to build multi-media content for a solo production in 2022.
Most recently, Jyothsna was awarded the 2024 Fellowship for Dance by Utah Division of Arts & Museums as a mark of recognition of her sustained artistic work.
Jyothsna is the artistic director of the Nitya Nritya Dance Company, a dance performing and training company based in Salt Lake City and the President of the Nitya Nritya Foundation.
Dr. Shrinivasan Raghuraman – Treasurer
Dr. Shrinivasan Raghuraman is a neuroscientist working at the University of Utah. He trained in different Indian Classical art forms including Violin, Tabla, Sitar and Bharatanatyam. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Music from Khairagarh University and trained with Guru Smt. Anita Nair (Bharatanatyam) and Guru Sri Rupendra Sharma (violin).
To continue his passion for Bharatanatyam, he joined Nitya Nritya Foundation and has been training with Guru Dr. Jyothsna Sainath since 2016. He strongly believes that arts fuel creativity in research and passionately works to disseminate arts and science in the Salt Lake Valley.
DEBANJAN BHATTACHARJEE
Debanjan holds a career as a Professor of Statistics at Utah Valley University since 2011. Debanjan also plays the Tabla and is a disciple of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. He performs regularly with instrumentalists, vocalists, and dancers across all genres. He has also played solos and given lectures on Tabla and Indian musical tradition at local Utah universities. Debanjan started learning Tabla in Kolkata, India, at a very young age with the support and encouragement of his parents. His initial training in Tabla was nurtured by his grandfather Late Sri Damarupani Bhattacharya and his uncle Sri Sudipto Bhattacharya. Later, he also studied with the Late Sri Ratan Ghatak who was a senior disciple of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. Debanjan remains busy with performing and teaching Tabla and continues to pursue his studies of music under the tutelage and blessings of his illustrious Guru Sri Swapan Chaudhuri.
RAGHAV VENKATRAMAN
Raghav Venkatraman is an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Utah. He has trained in Carnatic classical music for a number of years in India, first under the tutelage of Guru Madurai TN Seshagopalan in Chennai, and then Gurus Smt. Vimala Sampath and Smt. Jaya Thiagarajan in Bangalore. He has completed the junior and senior level exams by the Karnataka music board.
Raghav, with his family, moved to Salt Lake City recently. Raghav’s wife, Vaishnavi, has learnt Bharatanatyam for a number of years in India, where she completed her Arangetram. Sharing a deep passion for the arts, after recently moving to Salt Lake City (hopefully, permanently), Raghav and Vaishnavi have resumed their training in the respective arts– Vaishnavi with Dr. Jyothsna Sainath, and Raghav with Guru Sreevidhya Chandramouli.
ARATHI MANEESH
Arathi Kesavan is a Software Engineer with a strong passion for singing. Alongside her technical career, she has trained in Carnatic classical music for several years and has performed in several events. Arathi moved to Utah recently with here family of 12 year old twin boys and husband, Maneesh. Besides singing, Arathi loves traveling and spending quality time with her family and friends.
LAKSHMI MEKALA
Lakshmi Mekala is an Engineering Manager at Adobe with a deep passion for STEM education and Indian classical arts. She moved to Utah in 2006 with her husband, Murali. As a parent of two, Lakshmi is dedicated to preserving and celebrating cultural traditions. Her enthusiasm for the arts inspired her daughter to begin learning Bharatanatyam, fostering a shared love for this timeless classical dance form.
HONORARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The honorary board comprises of residents of the Salt Lake valley who have a long and sustained engagement with the arts and the community at large. Their role is primarily to help NNF liaise with other agencies in the space.
COUNCILWOMAN VICTORIA PETRO
First appointed to the Salt Lake City Council in November 2021, Councilwoman Victoria Petro quickly earned the trust of District 1 voters, who elected her to a full four-year term starting Jan. 3, 2022. Her colleagues recognized her leadership abilities, electing her as Council Vice Chair in 2023 and Council Chair in 2024. Victoria also represents the City on the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District Board, Utah Inland Port Authority Board, and the Salt Lake City Airport Advisory Board, advocating for equitable, community-centered development.
Victoria earned a bachelor’s degree in music therapy from East Carolina University, a master’s in musicology from Brandeis University, a master’s in international studies from North Carolina State University, and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University. Her career has spanned nonprofit leadership and consulting, with a focus on creating actionable strategies to improve inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility across various settings.