"The deeper you go into your own form, the more equipped you are to have a really meaningful collaboration. It's because we have all gone so deep into our forms and are rooted in an extremely disciplined practice that the meeting of us is like fireworks."

"What an evening! Packed with excitement, this delightful showcase seemed to end too soon."

— Robert Johnson, The Dance Enthusiast

"Joy saturates the room. . . these dancers are no joke. . . performers who carry immense wisdom in every movement choice. It felt important that they were seasoned artists; to me, a conversation of this magnitude requires the nuanced physical language that comes with technical mastery, improvisational maturity, and lineage within the form."

— Emilee Lord, Thinking Dance

"...the event showcased the profound impact that mutual, cross-cultural appreciation and conscious collaboration can offer."

— Indira Bush, Fordham Observer

"This fusion of razor precision and gleeful abandon, paired with a virtually boundless palette of sound and movement, leaves abundant fuel for future iterations of Speak. May the gods of dance sustain its passage."

"In the variable timing of her cyclonic spins and thrown poses, in the wit and mathematical wizardry of her bare feet and bell-ringed ankles, in her broad and amusing storytelling, precise enough to make the invisible palpable, she showed herself an expert in all sides of her art."

— Brian Seiber, New York Times

“If I didn’t study and love the music of the art form as deeply as the movement, I’d be extracting its heart and soul.”

“Speak has made its mark, touching many hearts.”

“The Artistic Directors of Leela Dance Collective have chosen an ambitious mission, to honor ancient traditions and bring them forward, made relevant to the present. There is no question that they are successful.”

— Mary Pat Cooney, LA Dance Chronicles

“Dance aficionados in the city witnessed an enthralling combination, as the two dance forms collaborated to feature rhythm, poetry, storytelling, music and dance.”

“Rachna is on a mission to spread the knowledge on Kathak that was given to her by her Guruji and to help create an infrastructure for the arts so people can have the opportunity to pursue it fully.”

“...Nivas radiated power and grace.”

“But those senior artists were outshone by Rachna Nivas as the queen. Charismatic, and resplendent in purple velvet and jewels, she poured emotion from every economical, natural gesture. And at the end, when she wailed over the lifeless body of her husband, Nivas channeled the sorrow of a lost nation.”