Nrithya-Upahaar is a biennial international festival of classical Indian dance curated by Upahaar School of Dance, held in London, bringing together some of the best artists in their fields. It was launched in 2013 as part of the school’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations, as a special venture to give exposure and enhance knowledge of students through performances in the UK.

The festival was a vision of the Director who had grown up watching stalwarts in the field during her early learning years and wished to replicate a similar scenario here in the UK. The main purpose of the festival is to present together local and international artists in order to preserve and promote classical dance forms. Although it was initially intended to be an annual festival, due to a lack of consistent funding we have had to make it biennial, but hope to eventually make it an annual event.

After a two year gap during the pandemic, Nrithya-Upahaar is back in a series over 2022 and 2023. The first part, to be held at Fairfield Halls, Croydon on Nov 5th, will showcase an array of semi-professional and professional artists from the UK and neighbouring regions. Nrithya-Upahaar 2022/23 will be inaugurated by the world renowned couple, the Natyacharyas, Padmabhushan VP and Shanta Dhananjayan. The festival will commence with the unique percussion feast Chenda Mela, followed by some amazing artists performing Kathakali(Kalamandalam Vijaya Kumar), Mohiniyattam(Upahaar ensemble), Odissi (Sooraj Subramaniam), Kathak (Upahaar's Deepa Menon Gandhi & Abirami Eshwar), Yakshagana(Devika Rao) and Bharatanatyam (Divya Ravi).