I’m President of Dances of India in St. Louis, now in its 47th season!

We’re a *2025 & 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Award Recipient.* I write & narrate our original dance-theater productions in addition to dancing. Please click here to watch our latest dance-theater production, Dreams of the Dark Prince, the Tale of Prince Duryodhana, from the Indian epic The Mahabharata. Please click here to watch a clip of the classical dances in our show, including a special piece I created to my favorite aria, O Mio Babbino Caro. Please click here to see the entire piece to O Mio Babbino Caro.

Here is my piece in the current (Spring 2025) Parabola: The Seer & the Student. The theme of the issue is The Mystery of Time; I weave together discussions between Einstein & the brilliant mathematician Kurt Gödel with discussions from a philosophical tale between the wandering sage Narada and the teacher Krishna from the Bhagavata Purana.

In addition, I am Story Editor of the acclaimed NY-based international journal Parabola, the Search for Meaning. Please keep scrolling to read a couple of my pieces from Parabola.

I also write fiction and nonfiction: an essay I wrote on my late father & growing up in STL is included in Belt Press’ The Best of the Rust Belt (Keep scrolling for details). This piece originally appeared in their 2019 The St. Louis Anthology.

In the meantime, please click here for my Substack page and here for my YouTube page.

*Please Click the Button Below for my piece in Parabola’s Summer 2024 issue, themed Reality.* One of the stories I’ve retold is inspired by a tale of Saladin and a Jewish merchant from the 14th-century Decameron by the Florentine writer Boccaccio. A wonderful tale to read for our troubled times…

*Please Click the Button Below to read my piece in the Spring 2024 issue of Parabola:

Rebellion. This is piece based on history mixed with legend from the 1791 Slave Rebellion in Haiti.*

Here’s my piece in the Fall 2023, issue:

Journey of the Rainbow Serpent

From the First Peoples of Australia.

My retelling of a couple of African tales in the Summer 23 issue of Parabola can be found here:

The Lazy Girl & the Butter-Yellow Pot

I just joined Substack! I’ve begun by writing about a recent safari to Tanzania, but I’m planning on writing about all kinds of topics, including travel, literature, philosophy, my childhood, science, nature, wildlife…dance of course! Mythology…the artistic journey…please feel free to read/comment/subscribe…

Nartana.Substack.Com

It all started when… I performed classical Indian dance on St. Louis TV station KSDK’s kids’ show Corky’s Colorama. And a little while later, I won all those fourth-grade class writing contests.

And that’s how I ended up being a dancer, writer, and storyteller.

I was recently asked by the Saint Louis Art Museum to write & narrate an audio description for their beautiful statue of the Dancing Shiva, or Shiva Nataraja. Please listen here:

In addition to writing, I perform, tell stories, & speak on art/history/dance/culture. Please visit the Contact Page for more info.

We—Dances of India— were just featured on Nine PBS’ Living St. Louis! Click Below: Dances of India on Nine PBS