Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Ainesh studied Computational Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and was a member of Penn Dhamaka.

Bela was raised in Montville, New Jersey (known for table-flipping real housewives) and has since moved back there since graduating from UPenn in 2018. At Penn, she studied Biological Basis of Behavior and Economics with a concentration in Healthcare Management through the LSM Program. She spent most of her "not studying" time dancing with Penn Raas, a competitive garba/raas team, and Penn Thillana, a classical team that brought her back to her Bharatnatyam roots. Now, she is continuing to pursue her passion for healthcare as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. In her spare time, she loves CorePower yoga, cheering for the Yankees, reading, hiking, and trying different Oreo flavors.

Divya was born and raised in Edison, New Jersey. It's no surprise that South Asian culture has played an integral part in her life. Trained in Odissi and Bollywood, she danced her way through The College of New Jersey as a member and manager of the fusion dance team, TCNJ Saathiya. After studying Sociology at TCNJ, she went on to pursue her MPH  in Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She currently works in Hospital Operations at NYU Langone Health.

Kanika is originally from upstate NY. Growing up she trained in Bharatnatyam and completed her arangetram in 2012. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Molecular Biology and Global Health Studies. While at Northwestern she was co-captain of Northwestern Mirch, an all-girls fusion dance team, and co-founded Northwestern Raas. She is currently in medical school at New York Medical College. 

Kavya hails from New Jersey and graduated from NYU Stern with a degree in Finance and Accounting. She currently works at Citi as a securities lending trader. Apart from dancing, Kavya enjoys traveling the world (25 countries down!), exploring NYC’s food scene, and watching an excessive amount of Friends.

Manas started learning Bharatanatyam at the age of 6. She graduated from Penn State and now works at Deloitte Consulting in the digital space. Manas is a certified yoga teacher and enjoys rock climbing and being outdoors.

Growing up, Pia’s weekdays and weekends were filled with ballet and bharatnatyam classes. While at NYU, where she majored in Economics and minored in Business Studies, Pia danced with Bollywood dance team NYU Dillagi and sang with the a capella team NY Masti. Currently, she works as an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. When she’s not crunching numbers and making colorful data charts, Pia illustrates and paints, jams on the piano, is an avid sci-fi reader and retro gamer, and loves catching up on Netflix.

Prarthana was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. She did her undergrad in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania and moved to NY in 2013. Currently, she works in the construction industry as a project manager at WSP, NY.  Prarthana grew up loving and dancing to Bollywood songs. She used to participate in school dance recitals and performed all four years of college in International Extravaganza dances. She joined Ayana to continue building on that passion. Besides dancing, in her free time she also really enjoys live music, sketching, baking, and photography. 

Priya hails from the tiny state of Delaware. For over 10 years, she has dabbled in an array of dance forms ranging from bhangra, bollywood, lyrical, hip hop, and salsa. After graduating from Georgetown University with a degree in Marketing, Psychology, and Economics, Priya currently works on the operations side at Gap Inc. In her free time apart from dancing, Priya likes to sketch, curate monthly Spotify playlists, and explore new ethnic digs in the city.

Reena has always loved finding rhythm in things since she was three years old. She's classically trained in Kathak, but her favorite part about dancing is fusing together different styles of dance. Born and raised in Chicago, Reena is a die hard Bulls fan who prefers deep dish pizza over a New York style thin crust any day. As adventurous as she is, Reena decided to move to Beijing for two years to master her Chinese. She continued her study in Finance and Management at NYU Stern, graduating in 2017. You can find her trying to explore a new neighborhood in Brooklyn or at a local cafe.

Sadhana, born and raised in New Jersey, graduated from NYU with a degree in Computer Science and Business. She is currently working at Wells Fargo Securities as a Software Engineer. When her eyes aren't glued to a computer screen, Sadhana enjoys attending different types of dance classes and teaching herself the guitar. Her dream is to visit 30 countries before she turns 30 and only has 9 more to go!

Originally from MA, Sarita graduated from Brown University in 2017, where she was a member of Brown Badmaash Dance Company.

Shreya is originally from Philadelphia, PA, but spent her high school years in Hyderabad, India. She graduated from Brown University in 2016 with a degree in Computer Science and is currently an Android Engineer at Spotify NYC. While at Brown, she did a lot of really cool things like participating in a Disney A Capella group and taking a West African dance class. Since moving to New York she has been spending her time going to as many food festivals as possible.

Srinidhi was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from THE Ohio State University in 2014. While at OSU she was the captain of The Ohio State Raas Team and competed on the Raas circuit for 3 years. She is also classically trained in Bharatnatyam. Besides dancing she also enjoys running, bothering her sister and brother, and playing rummy.

Stephen is a recent transplant to New York from his hometown of Washington, D.C., where he grew up and spent 2 years living after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.  As an artist, Stephen has performed in a show choir, a cappella group, musical theater group, and dance group!  He was on UPenn's all-male South Asian fusion dance team, and Washington D.C.'s South Asian Performing Arts Network (SAPAN) and is very excited for his first performance with Ayana Arts!

Tonia hails from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and graduated from University of Michigan in 2017 with a degree in Computer Science Engineering. In college, she was a member of the Michigan Bhangra Team and competed in the Bhangra dance circuit. She is also trained in Bharatnatyam, ballet and tap dancing. Tonia currently works at IBM Research as a Software Engineer. When she’s not coding away on her laptop, Tonia enjoys listening to new music, catching up on TV shows, and trying new restaurants in the city.