Biography
Rachna Nivas is one of the foremost kathak artists in the United States—a choreographer, performer, educator, curator, cultural catalyst, and activist devoted to upholding the integrity of North Indian classical art while advancing its contemporary relevance. Known for her commanding presence, rhythmic precision, storytelling, playfulness, and athleticism, she brings to the stage a rare combination of power, intellect, beauty, and joy—described by critics as “revelatory,” “charismatic,” and “radiating power and grace.”
A radical traditionalist, Rachna’s work interrogates Eurocentric and patriarchal paradigms through the lens of feminine consciousness, ancient Eastern philosophies, and embodied ancestral wisdom.
A senior disciple of legendary kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das, Rachna trained for over two decades under his mentorship, rising to principal dancer in his acclaimed company. Today, she carries this lineage forward through her independent body of solo choreographic work, which pushes kathak into contemporary and critical terrain; her Co-Artistic Directorship of Leela Dance Collective, an ensemble advancing kathak through large-scale productions and cross-genre collaboration; and her education and training work as Founder and Director of The Kathak Legacy Project.
Rachna has been recognized by leading cultural institutions for her artistic innovation and leadership. She was Artist-in-Residence at 92NY’s Harkness Dance Center (2024–25), where she is also curating What Flows Between Us(2026), a first-of-its-kind festival of Indian classical dance and music centering leading women artists. Other honors include a Works & Process residency (2025) supporting the remount of her acclaimed kathak–tap collaboration SPEAK; the prestigious Dance Research Fellowship of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (2022–23); and a CUNY Dance Initiative Residency (2023–24).
Rachna’s original works include Reclaiming the Divine Feminine, rooted in tantric philosophy and centers Goddess Kali as a force of untamed feminine wholeness—embracing destruction, desire, and transformation as necessary to restoring balance.; Unedited, a risk-bound, virtuosic solo grounded in improvisation with live musicians; SPEAK, a legacy-rich collaboration bridging kathak and tap and Indian and African American artistic lineages, co-created with Rukhmani Mehta, Dormeshia, and Michelle Dorrance; Son of the Wind, a large-scale dance drama drawn from the epic Ramayana; and Meera, the story of a medieval Hindu princess who liberates herself from patriarchy through poetry, song, and dance.
Her work has been presented at major venues including 92NY’s Harkness Dance Center, New York Live Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Broad Stage, Ford Theaters, Wolf Trap, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, NC State LIVE, Mumbai’s Royal Opera House, Kolkata’s Birla Sabhagar, and Delhi’s Epicentre. Her projects have received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Harkness Foundation for Dance, New York State Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Music USA, MAP Fund, California Arts Council, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation, among others.
Her NYPL dance research fellowship project, Nature, Woman, and the Macrocosm: How Indian Classical Dance Transmits a Consciousness of Indivisibility, wove archival research, ecofeminism, and performance to examine dance as a conduit for ecological and spiritual knowledge. A macro- and micro-thinker at heart, Rachna’s creative process is deeply informed by her scientific background. Before dedicating herself fully to dance, she studied Molecular Environmental Biology at UC Berkeley and did her graduate studies in Public Health. This foundation continues to shape her artistic philosophy: the body as ecosystem, movement as intelligence, and rhythm as a living language of connection.
Drawing equally from ancestral knowledge and contemporary science, Rachna approaches rhythm as a pathway to awareness and consciousness, and dance as a catalyst for awakening—informing her ongoing exploration of the human body, nervous system, and brain health, and how embodied practice unlocks creativity and flow. To this end, she is also a certified instructor of Rev6, a movement system rooted in neurology and fascia science, which supports her inquiry into kinesthetic intelligence and long-term performance sustainability.
Alongside her artistic career, Rachna has played a defining role in shaping kathak education and leadership in the United States for over two decades. Appointed by her guru, Pandit Chitresh Das, she directed the Chhandam School of Kathak in the San Francisco Bay Area for a decade, helping build it into one of the largest and most influential Indian classical dance institutions outside of India. She later co-founded and led Leela Academy (2016–2025), a rare, centralized training initiative spanning multiple U.S. cities, established to provide continuity and collective stewardship in the wake of her guru’s passing. For more than a decade, she shepherded a pre-professional youth company, using kathak as a vehicle for teen empowerment, leadership development, and critical engagement with identity and culture. In New York, where she has been teaching since 2015, she founded The Kathak Legacy Project as the dedicated home for her education and training initiatives. Following in her guru’s footsteps, Rachna approaches as a site of resistance, humanity, and cultural continuity, grounded in the commitment to protecting the art form’s historical, philosophical, physical, and spiritual depth.
