Skip to content

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

About us

Creating dance that can be performed anywhere, for anyone.

Our professional dance company, Sanskruti Dance, began in 2017 following a number of one-off events, including the Cambridge Big Weekend Festivals and a Bharatanatyam Flashmob performance for Mill Road Midsummer Festival. Sanskruti Dance was officially registered as a Community Interest Company in October 2021.

We received our first seed funding as Uttkarsh runner’s up from Akademi, which was then used to secure Arts Council Funding to develop our first choreographic work, Apple ‘N’ Spice.

The word Sanskruti means ‘culture’ in Sanskrit. Our mission is to inspire, educate and engage people in South Asian art forms, culture and heritage.

Find out more

FAQ's

1. What is Bharatanatyam dance?

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form from South Asia, the oldest classical dance tradition in India.

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form from South Asia, the oldest classical dance tradition in India. The dance style originated in the temples of Southern India in the state of Tamil Nadu but is now widely performed in a variety of venues including outdoors.

Bharatanatyam style is noted for its fixed upper torso, bent legs and knees flexed (Araimandi) combined with footwork, and a vocabulary of sign language based on gestures of hands, eyes, and face muscles. Storytelling is an integral part of the artform using facial expressions along with hand gestures and body movement.

2. How are your productions developed?

Our Artistic Director Krishna creates dance theatre for children and families that is rooted in South Asian heritage but is at the same time relevant to British society. Our original productions blend stories from both east and west. Our productions always start with a script and we always work with a dramaturg to ensure that the movement we create is effectively communicated with our audiences.

3. What other artforms are included in your productions?

At Sanskruti, we create original productions which include multiple creative elements including storytelling, music, shadow puppetry and, magic.

4. Do I need to have prior knowledge about Bharatanatyam before coming to watch your show?

Not at all! Our shows are enjoyed by children and adults alike, whatever their cultural knowledge and background.

5. Where can I learn Bharatnatyam dance?

If you’re in the Cambridge area, we run a dance school – visit www.sanskruti.org.uk to find out more.

To find out about classes in other parts of the UK, visit https://www.akademi.co.uk/akademi-resources/.

Meet us

Our team

Krishna Zivraj-Nair

Krishna Zivraj-Nair

Artistic Director

Sue Lea

Sue Lea

Marketing and Audience Development Manager

Jenny Jameerbocus

Jenny Jameerbocus

Producer​

Anoohya Anoohya

Anoohya Anoohya

Company Manager

Ayesha Nair - Script Writer

Ayesha Nair

Script Writer

Meet us

Our board members

Amit Nair

Amit Nair​

Board Member

tomorr portrait

Tomorr Kokona

Board Member

chris portrait

Chris Fogg

Board Member

Meera Vinay

Meera Vinay

Board Member

SUPPORTING US

Our partners

The development and touring of Sanskruti Dance’s productions have only been possible thanks to the invaluable support of our partners, to whom we are very grateful.

about our partners
about our partners
about our partners
about our partners
about our partners
about our partners
about our partners
×

Ayesha Nair

Script Writer

Ayesha Nair is an award-winning Indian screenwriter and playwright. She has been a writer for over 10 years writing for print, TV, digital and stage.

Ayesha has worked in children’s theatre, performing in Indian plays like Once Upon A… Tiger, The Kachra Tales and Wolf. She has also collaborated with educational institutions to conduct workshops and direct their annual theatre shows. Ayesha has also scripted plays for young audiences.

For older audiences, she has also written the play Third Time’s the Harm which won the Shyamanand Jalan National Youth Theatre Award. Her play Butterflies on Bricks had rehearsed readings at the Mercury Theatre, England and Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai by Rage Theatre.

Ayesha has a long-term collaboration with Sanskruti writing scripts for the award-winning shows Apple ‘N’ Spice and Magical Honey.

×

Krishna Zivraj-Nair

Artistic Director

Krishna is a Bharatanatyam artist, teacher, performer, and choreographer. She runs the award-winning dance school Sanskruti Cambridge, which is now 15 years old. Krishna received the Nritya Ratna Award from India for her contribution to the arts. Krishna’s work has been endorsed by Akademi’s UTKARSH award, One Dance Teaching Mentoring programme, given to those identified as future leaders and ISTD Bursary Award in recognition for her teaching skills. She was also selected as an artist for Mercury Creatives Artist Development Programme. Krishna’s artistic vision is to create dance theatre for children and families that is rooted in south-Asian heritage but at the same time be relevant to British society, which consists of diverse ethnicities. Her role behind the scenes includes researching and developing new choreography ideas, establishing collaborations with partners and stakeholders and overviewing production and audience development with her team members.

×

Sue Lea

Marketing and Audience Development Manager

Sue is a marketing communications professional with over twenty years experience in the charity and not-for-profit sector. 

She loves working in the arts, and particularly enjoys the challenge of getting stuck into a new project.

In her spare time, Sue writes stories that often blend history and fantasy.

×

Jenny Jameerbocus

Producer

Jenny is a freelance performing arts and festival producer who has joined us for our 2025 season.

×

Anoohya Anoohya

Company Manager

Anoohya’s background is in co-producing, stage management, and artist networking, alongside developing creative and artistic projects in music and dance. She is trained as a Carnatic vocalist and Bollywood dancer.

×

Amit Nair

Board Member

Amit is Cambridge-based business consultant and helps start-up companies commercialise their innovations. Some of his work involves helping companies raise funds through government schemes for research and development projects. Using this experience and as one of the founding directors of Sanskruti, Amit has helped the organisation in its grant applications, budgeting, and financial projects. He also provides business advice to Krishna as she develops Sanskruti further and will continue to manage the company finances

×

Tomorr Kokona

Board member

Tomorr is a London-based performing arts business consultant, coach, and mentor with a background as an international arts practitioner specialising in theatre, movement and choreography spanning over three decades. Tomorr use this wealth of experience, a wide array of skills and his academic studies to help individuals and businesses prosper with his firm Tomorr Kokona Creative Leadership Consulting (https://tomorrkokona.com/). Tomorr mentored Krishna as a Mercury Creative and helped her channel her vision for SA performing arts by creating Sanskruti Cambridge CIC and continues to guide her as a Board Member of the CIC.

×

Chris Fogg

Board Member

Chris was Creative Producer for South East Dance from 2009-2013 and was the Creative Producer for the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund from 2011-2017, since when he has been working freelance as a writer, producer, theatre director, arts consultant, and dramaturg for choreographers and dance companies. Prior to joining South East Dance Chris was Director of Dance & Theatre for Take Art, the rural arts development agency for Somerset, and before that Artistic Director of Beaford Arts in Devon, whom he joined after being Associate Director of New Perpsectives Theatre Company in Nottinghamshire. Chris is the dramaturg for Magical Honey and mentors Krishna on rural touring.

×

Meera Vinay

Board member

Meera is a freelance creative arts leader with more than 15 years of experience in business strategy, operations & planning. Meera launched IndianRaga, an award winning art-based start up in the UK, ramping up operations from a single-woman team to include more than 200 amateur artists & professionals in a span of three years. She has since launched the first global IndianRaga Festival and has successfully raised funds with Arts Council England, DCMS & private investors.


Meera works independently as a performing producer undertaking assignments for emerging and established artists as well as arts organisations focussing on SA art forms. Some of her latest projects include, ‘Plastic Drastic Fantastic’ with Akademi, ‘ Tale of Tawaifs’ with Kalakar Arts and ‘Polyrhythms’ with Prathap Ramachandra. She is currently working with Bhavan UK, a NPO in their fundraising initiatives. She is the founder member of Hertfordshire Dance Consortium which aims at increasing participation in dance & movement activities in the county.