Karina Dutta Karmakar
Artistic Director. Choreographer. Instructor. Performer. Entertainer.
Karina Dutta Karmakar has trained under the guidance of Guru Saveeta Sharma since 1998 and has been exposed to and trained in a variety of dance forms including Kathak, Odissi, and Indian Contemporary. She continues to train and work with Upasana The Spirit of Dance and is also a company dancer. Throughout her university career in engineering, she pursued her passion for dance and choreographed for multiple national inter-university dance competitions where she received several accolades for Bollywood and Indian Classical choreography. She is also one of the founding members, artistic director, choreographer and dancer of Jannat Performing Arts, a filmi-fusion dance troupe. Throughout her dance journey, she has exposed herself to various western styles such as Hip-Hop, contemporary, salsa and more. Karina keeps delving deeper into her passion by going back to her classical roots and exploring new contemporary movements with Upasana.
As one of the founders of the Ottawa-based dance troupe, Jannat Performing Arts, Karina has taught dancers her values and discipline in the creative arts. She has also spear-headed three successful dance productions. Jannat Performing Arts strives to be a team with a diverse range of dancing styles. Throughout the pandemic she has actively found ways to engage people through difficult times with her free virtual dance workshops on Zoom to create a safe-space to spread the love for dance while catering to all age groups/levels and also released a video production.
As a choreographer, Karina has led Ottawa’s university (Carleton University & dance teams of over 30 dancers at the South Asian Alliance Culture Show in 2011, at the North American Culture Show in 2012 and 2013 and at Bollywood Dance Canada in 2015. Through these dance competitions, she has been awarded accolades for choreographies such as Best Bollywood and Best Classical.
Karina had the opportunity to take part in intensive workshops with Kathak Legend Pandit Birju Maharaj Ji and Bollywood dance Maestro late Saroj Khan and performed for their showcases. She also attended workshops by Terence Lewis, Blake McGrath, Chaz Buzan, and many more well established dancers and choreographers. She continues to train to expand her dance vocabulary as she is driven by the fact that there is always more to learn.
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