Baila Society x Navatman: 2026 Season

"I felt it should be on Broadway."

"Tears streamed down my face almost the entire performance."

"One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen."

— Audience member, Roots of Resilience (2025)

When the Sun Rises

Friday, June 26, 2026 - 08:00 PM EDT
Saturday, June 27, 2026 - 07:30 PM EDT
Sunday, June 28, 2026 - 03:00 PM EDT

The professional production. Original live score. Mature material — not for under 5.

When the sun rises (Program A) combines the arts of salsa, bharatanatyam, and kathak but has a completely newly composed musical score of shared music across styles featuring Lulada Club musicians Andrea Chavarro, Katherine Ocampo, Daniela Serna, alongside Manual Marquez, Ayamey Bell Torriente, Juan Pulido, Radhika Iyer, Shraman Sen and Sanjay Natesan.

Tickets from $38

Azimuth

Saturday June 27, 2026 - 2:30PM only

Both companies' full dance communities together. Family-friendly matinee.

Azimuth (program B) leads both Baila Society's and Navatman's entire dancing communities beyond our professional contingent to find ways to collaborate and grow alongside each other.

Tickets from $38

Venue for both programs:
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
405 West 55th Street (at 9th Avenue), NYC

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9 musicians. 2 traditions. One score nobody has ever heard.

A brand-new composition written from scratch by Lulada Club, Carnatic, and Hindustani artists — performed live, not borrowed, not sampled.

Andrea Chavarro · Katherine Ocampo · Daniela Serna · Ayamey Bell Torriente · Juan Pulido · Radhika Iyer · Shraman Sen · Sanjay Natesan

Led by 2 women, 40+ years of artistic direction combined

Ahtoy Juliana, world champion salsa dancer and phD in epidemiology

Sahasra Sambamoorthi, noted as a young trailblazer leading a new understanding of South Asian arts in the United States.

Leaders Ahtoy Juliana and Sahasra Sambamoorthi have been working in their fields for 20+ years, gathering experience and knowledge from the best of the best around the world with the hope that communities like Navatman and Baila Society can help create greater impact and change together. Sahasra Sambamoorthi has been noted as a "young trailblazer...on the crest of the wave leading us towards a new understanding of South Asian arts in the United States", and Ahtoy Juliana holds multiple world championship titles under her belt and helped shape the global salsa scene for the last 20+ years.

A quick look at where this all began - Roots of Resilience in 2025:

Why we built it:

Roots of Resilience - premiered in 2025 - was more than a performance; it is a celebration of a journey rooted in resilience, creativity, and community. When the Sun Rises is part 2 of this incredible journey.

BAILA Society and Navatman, as two women leading cultural dance organizations, come together with a shared belief: that we are stronger together in a world that too often overlooks, underfunds, and undervalues the art forms and communities we represent.

We are joining forces not because it was easy or financially feasible, but because we knew it was necessary.  We are guided by love for our cultures, genuine curiosity for each other’s traditions, and a deep desire to uplift and support women-led organizations in the arts.

What began as a simple collaboration soon revealed something much deeper. Through shared rehearsals, creative exchange, and countless hours of organizing, we discovered that our connection extended beyond dance.  We are coming to see the profound potential of what happens when artists and students join forces - not just to perform, but to heal, to build, to transform.

Together, we began to intentionally shape spaces where our communities could feel stable, strong, safe, joyful, and deeply loved. In doing so, we are constantly re-examining how we teach, how we lead, and how we live our values through movement and art.

Then, just months into this partnership, we faced one of the most difficult climates in recent U.S. history. In the wake of all that is around us, we find ourselves and our communities navigating fear, anger, and profound uncertainty.

But in that darkness, we chose compassion. We prioritized one another’s humanity. We held space for grief and created room for hope.
We turned our dance studio into a sanctuary - a place where people could bring their existential dread and be met with care, understanding, and the freedom to feel. Then came the very real consequences. Across the country, arts and cultural programs were defunded and dissolved. Institutions we had long admired shuttered their doors.

What had started as a partnership is now a lifeline. We realize no one is coming to save our art forms. So we decided to create this show ourselves. We rented this theater. We produced it independently. We created an original musical composition of Indian and Afro-Cuban motifs. It is financially challenging, but we feel, with every fiber of our beings, that it is urgently necessary. Who better to care for our art than those who live and breathe it?

Most importantly, we came to understand something we hope each of us carries home after our shows: that we must have the audacity to dream - boldly, unapologetically - of the world we want to live in, even in the face of relentless adversity. In a world that tells us “no” at every turn, the act of dreaming becomes a form of resistance.

We learn to carve paths where none exist - not because it’s easy, but because we believe. We believe in beauty, in community, in possibility, and in our collective power to imagine and create something better.

Through this journey, we’ve learned that friendship is sacred. That no creative endeavor can thrive without time and space to nurture love and trust.  We are grateful beyond words for the bond we have built - and we hope that this evening’s performance reflects not just the strength of our cultures, but the power of human connection.

To every person who will be buying a ticket and joining us on this journey: thank you. Thank you for your courage, your vulnerability, and your willingness to find new ways to thrive in this ever-changing world.

This is the kind of art that isn't hyped up because of history or power, but has still survived. The originals - the pioneers - they didn't dance for the Gram. They danced for the right to be.

Resilient. Powerful. Bold.

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From past audiences:

“... Navatman’s aesthetic and skill kept me spellbound for the whole show..."

"Tears streamed down my face almost the entire performance. Your strong, yet touching introduction and those of the other performers made the show so unique and powerful! The dances were exceptional – I felt it should be on Broadway."

"I’ve never watched anything like this before, and honestly I wish I knew of anything else that approaches it. “

“...one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen…from the attention to detail, to the intentionality…it was just incredible”

They didn't dance for the 'Gram. They danced for the right to be.​​

"I felt it should be on Broadway.""Tears streamed down my face almost the entire performance.""One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen."​​ — Audience member, Roots of Resilience (2025)