Prashant Shah & Dancers

New York, USA

Prashant Shah, one of the senior disciples of Padma Bhushan Smt. Kumudini Lakhia, is a critically acclaimed male teacher-performer-choreographer based in Queens, New York. Prashant’s virtuosity in Kathak enables him to perform a vast repertoire with masculine grace stripped of flowery affectation and makes him one of the outstanding male dancers of his genre today. The first recipient for Kathak dance of Sangeet Natak Akademi's Yuva Puraskar award established by the President of India in the name of legendary musician, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Prashant has performed in over forty countries as a leading member of Kadamb’s prestigious performing unit as well as a soloist too.

Prashant is a top grade artiste at ‘Doordarshan Kendra’ and an empaneled artiste in the established category of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. Often commissioned internationally to work with other dance styles like hip hop, belly dancing, flamenco, bharatanatyam, modern and contemporary dance, he has received rave reviews in newspapers such as The Hindu, Statesman, The New York Times, Star Ledger, Guardian, The Independent, San Francisco Chronicle, and Dancing Times. Prashant has performed solo dance evenings at prestigious dance festivals in India like Krishna Gana Sabha - Chennai, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival - Bhubaneshwar, NCPA - Mumbai, IIC - New Delhi, and Bharat Bhawan - Bhopal, where his performances were appreciated by both critics and connoisseurs. Prashant also heads the Kathak Department at the prestigious Arya Dance Academy, USA.

Prashant feels fortunate and blessed to bring in together numerous dancers-performers-disciples trained in the past by prominent senior Kathak dance gurus and also senior dancers regularly trained by him in his company. Prashant, is happy to showcase young upcoming talented Kathak students trained under him at Arya as his company performers. Prashant’s work mainly focuses on Kathak traditional technique and repertoire but at the same time he firmly believes there is always a scope of change and progress with current times to introduce new movements and rhythmic patterns. For this, some of his choreographies incorporate contemporary ideas within the framework of pure Kathak form.