Yashoda Thakore descends from a long line of Kalavantalu dancers (hereditary women singer / dancer families). A renowned Kuchipudi and Devadasi Nrityam, Yashoda has performed on national and international stages to great acclaim. Yashoda works relentlessly to recover the voices and dances of the Kalavantalu women and to bring the next generation of artists from her community back to singing and dancing.
Her main goal is to increase awareness and pride in these art forms. She has a Ph.D for her research on the Inter-relationship Between Yoga and Indian Classical Dances and has authored “Kaivalya-Joy in Yoga and Dance” (2014), co-translated and critically edited “Nritta Ratnavali”, a 13 th Century text.
She was an artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania (2019), and performed at the Wesleyan University (2019). Yashoda is a faculty for Kuchipudi at The University of Silicon Andhra, California. She was conferred the Bangalore Nagaratnamma award (2017) by the Samskruti Organisation, Guntur and the Ugadi Puraskaram by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.