Samyuktha Punthambekar is an Indo-Canadian Bharatanatyam artist, educator, cultural policy strategist, and arts manager based in Lubbock, Texas. With over 25 years of performance experience and 15+ years of teaching, her practice spans Bharatanatyam (Kalakshetra style), Kathak, Indian folk dance, and classical Carnatic music. She began her training at the age of seven under Guru Nirupama and Guru Rajendra of Abhinava Dance Company (India), later serving as a principal dancer with the company for over a decade, performing across India, the UAE, and Switzerland at prestigious festivals and national platforms, including Kathak Mahotsav in New Delhi.

 

Samyuktha is a graduate of the Kalakshetra Foundation, Rukmini Devi College of Performing Arts (Chennai, India), where she trained under Gurus K.R. Lokesh Raj, Tangamani Natarajan, Ganga Thampi, graduating with First Class Honors and a one-year promotion. She completed her Arangetram under Gurus Kiran Subramaniam and Sandhya Kiran (Bengaluru). Her international teaching career includes work with the Temple of Fine Arts (Malaysia and Singapore) and Sampradaya Dance Academy (Canada), where she served as Senior Dance Teacher, company dancer, Arangetram mentor, curriculum developer (ISTD), and academy-wide costume and inventory manager.

 

In Canada, she was also an artist-educator on the Toronto District School Board and Peel District School Board rosters, a Prologue Performing Arts artist, and a facilitator at festivals such as Paprika.Parallel to her artistic career, Samyuktha has built a strong leadership profile in arts administration and cultural policy. Supported by the Ontario Arts Council, she completed formal training in Arts Administration and Cultural Management at Humber College, graduating with honours. Her professional experience includes work with the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, Toronto Arts Foundation, Jaberi Dance Theatre, Lua Shayenne Dance Company, and Sunny Artist Management, and most recently as Program Manager at the Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA), where she led national initiatives and supported the CDA–CAPACOA Conference. She has also trained extensively in contemporary dance through the Peggy Baker Dance Project Intensive, studied ballet at the National Ballet of Canada, and performed at major events including Fall for Dance North and Toronto Newcomer Day.

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Samyuktha is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Fine Arts (Arts Administration track) at Texas Tech University, where her research focuses on arts leadership, cultural policy, and decolonial approaches to dance education. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Annamalai University. Her leadership journey includes participation in the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program, and she was recently recognized as part of Texas Tech’s Leaders & Scholars cohort (https://www.depts.ttu.edu/visual-performing-arts/news/posts/2025/11/11-24-leaders.php)

 

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kalasadhana Dance Company (KDC), established in Ottawa in 2020, and Kalasadhana Dance Academy (KDA), founded in Lubbock in 2025 as the city’s first Kalakshetra-style Bharatanatyam training institution. Through performance, pedagogy, and policy-driven engagement, Samyuktha continues to advance Bharatanatyam as a living, relevant, and ethically grounded art form in North America. She actively seeks opportunities for performance, teaching, collaboration, and community engagement, and looks forward to connecting with artists and institutions across Lubbock and beyond.