Mandala Makers Festival is proud to present Chicago’s rising artists in our YOUTH ARTIST SHOWCASE. Join us Sunday, June 26th at Indian Boundary Park to see performances by a new generation!

Shefali Shah is 10 years old and loves all forms of dance. She has been learning Bharatanatyam through Mandala Arts since she was 3 years old. She is also a member of Visceral Dance Studio’s Youth Ensemble where she is learning ballet, modern, contemporary, and jazz. Shefali loves each dance style on its own but also loves to explore how they can intertwine to represent herself more fully. She also loves reading and spending time with her family and friends. Shefali’s photo is by KTMiller Photography.

Ishani Chattopadhyay is 15 years old and a sophomore at Oak Park and River Forest High School. She loves to express her creativity through art, music and dance! She has been doing bharatanatyam for almost eight years now. She loves all forms of dance and would love to explore them all. When she is not dancing, she loves to build and craft things, play badminton or listen to electronic music.

Sanya Sujdak a 14-year-old student at Soham Dance Space, has been learning bharatanatyam since she was four. She recently performed at a Buddhist temple with her partner Ishani and is looking forward to working with her today. When she isn’t dancing, Sanya enjoys producing trap and hip hop, doing henna tattoos (she’s turned her friends into her personal canvases by now), and teaching math at volunteer organizations.

Dance Peace is an initiative where refugee children and families in areas of social tension integrate peacefully into their communities through dance education and performance experiences. The program covers tuition scholarships, free dancewear, complimentary tickets, field trips, a paid teaching apprenticeship, and more. Current dancers are from Myanmar/Burma, Congo,/Zambia, among other places. The program is generously hosted by Music House (2925 W Devon) and supported by individual donations.

Sahana Prakash is a freshman and honor student at Conant High. She has won speech competitions and has been learning Carnatic Vocal from Saraswathi Ranganathan for the past 7 years. She enjoys the music learning process as she feels the lessons are curated to realize her potential. Besides, learning a mix of Carnatic and light music helps with her focus and motivation for everyday activities. Sahana does painting, sketching, Bharatanatyam and plays badminton.

JayaVarshini Gudipalli is a seventh grader learning Carnatic Veena from Saraswathi Ranganathan for the past three years. She enjoys the learning process as she gets to explore the instrument with an interesting mix of both classical and custom songs for festive occasions! JayaVarshini plays the saxophone in band and viola in orchestra. She is also learning Kuchipudi dance.

Vainavi Raghavendran (9 yrs old) is learning Carnatic vocal music from Guru Sri. Ganapathy raman for the last two years. Seshadri Raghavendran (13 yrs old) is meticulously learning Mridhangam ( Indian percussion) under the tutelage of Guru Sri. Ravishankar Subramanyan for the last four years.

and performances by Sahana Prakash and more!

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