Rajika PURI, exponent of two forms of Indian dance: Bharata Natyam and Odissi, performs in solo recital all over the US, Latin America, Europe and India. Conversant with Indian and western music, flamenco, and modern dance, her creative collaborations include: Flamenco Natyam, Bharatanatyam Variations and Bach-Bharatanatyam Variations. Since she was cast as ‘Narrator’/ ‘goddess Kali’ in Julie Taymor’s The Transposed Heads (Lincoln Center Theater), Rajika has acted in productions at Public Theater, Guthrie Theater, Classic Stage Co, Theatre for a New Audience, and in films like Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala. She has also developed a solo form of danced story-telling, in which she accompanies her danced movements with song, Sanskrit chant, and spoken drum syllables (New York Ramayana, Kaye Playhouse, NY; India tour 2005). Her latest work, Union/Severed , explores two expressions of the divine: Radha and Kali – in collaboration with singer Nora York, and flautist Steve Gorn, (Asia Society, May 2005). An M.A. (NYU) in the study of movement from a semantic anthropological perspective, Rajika also lectures and writes on Indian and western performing arts.