Meet the Founder Old
Meet Shingari
Clair Kuriakose, also known as Shingari, is a well-known artist in the South Asian community. She took her first dance step at the age of four in Kerala, India. After immigrating to Houston, Texas with her family, she continued her classical dance training in Bharatnatym with Nritya School of Dance and Sreepadam School of Arts. Shingari began teaching dance lessons when she was just thirteen years old, teaching fifty students each week before she graduated high school. Her dance specialties include Bhratnatyam, Kuchipudi, Folk and Bollywood. Shingari received her Bharatnatyam Arangetram in 2013.
She entered the Physician Assistant program at St. John’s University in New York after high school. Her passion for dance did not cease, and while going through her rigorous academic program, she still managed to teach weekly dance classes and serve as Captain of RAAZ, the University’s South Asia dance team. Pursuing her MBA at the University of Houston helped her expand her entrepreneurial skills and advance in her Health Career.
Shingari founded Shingari’s School of Rhythm in Houston in 2008. It was her life-long dream to own a dance school and share her passion for dance. The school has expanded to become one of the best Bollywood dance school in the country, and Shingari’s award-winning choreography has been brought to life on stages around the world. In 2013, Shingari’s School of Rhythm launched an online dance portal, bollywoodtrainer.org This helped students around the world learn Indian Bollywood Dance for free without ever having to visit a dance studio! She currently resides in San Francisco, where she manages the national dance school’s operations and also works at Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto as a Manager of Advanced Practice.
