Richa Joanita Das

Biography

A life in Bharatanatyam

A Bharatanatyam practitioner with over 15 years of dedicated training under renowned gurus Parshwanath Upadhye, Shruti Gopal and Adithya P.V. at the Upadhye School of Dance, Bengaluru. She continues to deepen her practice through advanced tālam training under Vinay Nagarajan.

A Doordarshan-graded artist and recipient of the Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya Academy Scholarship (2021–22), Richa has performed on prestigious national and international platforms — the Men's Hockey World Cup Opening Ceremony (2018), Delhi International Arts Festival, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, Bengaluru Ganesh Utsav and the Mysore Dasara Festival. She has completed her Senior examination of the Karnataka Secondary Education Board with a distinction.

A milestone in her journey was an international tour to Italy, performing in Rome and Pontedera while conducting Bharatanatyam workshops in Turin and other cities — actively promoting Indian classical dance among global audiences.

As a performer and choreographer she has been associated with productions such as Āsav (co-conceptualized and co-choreographed) and Behag. She tours extensively with the Punyah Dance Company and the Upadhye School of Dance, and performs with the Aayana Dance Company. Her solo production Ekāgrata was presented at Medai, Bengaluru.

Beyond performance, Richa served as Secretary of the Kristu Jayanti Dance Academy and Lead Choreographer of Team RAAS. She is trained as a nattuvanar, with interests in lighting design, photography and graphic design. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication from Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru, where she was honoured with the title of Ms. Jayantian (2023–2026).