Niharika Mohanty, resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a leading Odissi dancer in the West as a prominent disciple of legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Niharika was raised in Canada, but she took to Odissi dance at the tender age of five. Today, Niharika continues refining her dance under the two torch-bearers of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s style – Guru Ratikant and Guru Sujata Mohapatra. Niharika also holds an MA in Dance and has received several grants and awards for training, performance, and choreography. Niharika has been honored in 2019 as a Mosaic Silicon Valley Fellow for commitment to artistic excellence and strengthening community through multicultural arts. She relishes working on cross-cultural collaborative projects.