About Us

The Indian Performing Arts Center (IPAC) acts as a hub for the preservation and propagation of Indian classical dance and music in Los Angeles. We specialize in training community members in the art of Kathak, a classical dance of India, which includes lessons in music, movement, history, cultural heritage, and social relationships.

What is Kathak

Kathak in its current form is a concert dance from north India drawing from techniques and aesthetics developed over centuries from a myriad of sources including both Hindu and Muslim devotional practice, royal entertainment, courtesan practice, Sanskrit scriptures, and Western classicism.

After India gained independence from the British empire in 1947, the new state government declared Kathak a classical dance of India. Like many of the other classical dances of India, Kathak combines nritta (abstract movement including footwork and compositions that focus on line and rhythm) with elements of nritya (stylized storytelling through mime and codified gestures).

Kathak is built on a multiplicity of cultural influences. Kathak today ties together tradition and modernity with grace.

Meet our Founder: Rachana Upadhyay

Dancer, Teacher, Artist

Rachana Upadhyay is the director of IPAC. She received her Nipun, or Master’s degree, in Kathak from Bhatkhande Music College in Lucknow, India. The degree was dependent on the passage of rigorous examinations that tested her understanding of theory and history as well as performance-exams that evaluated the quality of dance movement and expression as well as mastery over advanced technical elements like rhythmic improvisation.

Rachana trained under many renowned gurus including Subhash Dixit, Purnima Pandey, Kathak scholar Dr. Puru Dadhich, and legendary Lucknow maestro Birju Maharaj. She was presented two awards for Best Upcoming Artist from Indian classical dance organizations Kalakar Sangam and Munal Sanskritik Manch. Rachana also holds a Prabhakar (sixth year diploma) from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, an independent classical music and dance assessment center in Allahabad, India, where she received distinctions in her yearly exams.

She represents the Lucknow gharana of Kathak dance, a style of Kathak that specializes in delicate but precise execution of technique, and nuanced expressive storytelling. Rachana toured across India as part of the Bhatkhande performing troupe from 1975 to 1991, and choreographed for national Indian television from 1987 to 1991.

After an award-winning career as a touring performer Rachana moved to the US in the 1990s and started teaching Kathak in the San Fernando Valley in 1998, where there was almost no representation of Indian classical art at the time. Over the last couple decades, the dance has flowed from her modest home studio in Northridge to a much larger network of students and their families who have imbibed the form and are committed to upholding its unique history, style, and values. She established IPAC in 2010 to facilitate the involvement of other professional artists and platforms in this artistic endeavor.