Soma is a London-based performer with 20 years of experience in Odissi. Their training began in 2003 at age 5 under Guru Supradipta Datta in Houston, TX. Early on, they performed in solo and group productions at renowned festivals including Houston Diwali Festival held in the prestigious Wortham Centre and International Odissi Festival 2013 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha where they were the youngest solo performer.
While Guru Supradipta Datta built Soma’s foundations, they were lucky enough to have other gurus in Odisha including Gurus Aloka Kanungo, Manoranjan Pradhan, and Sujata Mahapatra. In particular, Soma began training under Padmashree Awardee Guru Aruna Mohanty with Orissa Dance Academy from 2015. Since 2017, Guru Aruna Mohanty has been their main guru.
With Guru Aruna Mohanty, Soma has had the privilege of extending their body’s capability for diverse movement and abhinaya. Under her tutelage, they have performed solo several times in Boston, London, Odisha, and Assam. They also had the honor of performing and scriptwriting for Guru Aruna Mohanty’s production of Saptavarna that toured the US in 2019, spanning several cities in Texas, California, Florida, and DC.
In university, Soma attended multiple choreography classes: ‘Choreography’ with Professor Dan Safer at MIT and ‘Choreographies of Resistance’ with Professor Sharon Kivenko at Harvard. These classes broadened their concept of choreography beyond what they observed under Guru Aruna Mohanty and gave them new techniques to develop their choreographic practice. With old and new techniques, they have had the opportunity to develop experimental pieces for academic, public, and personal showcases since 2018.