Divya Kasturi is a multifaceted dance practitioner with more than three decades of performing experience.
She is trained in two South Asian dance styles of Bharatanatyam and Kathak. She is also trained in Western contemporary dance and has studied choreography modules at masters level.
Divya Kasturi is also a classical vocalist. She has worked with Sir Paul McCartney and Nitin Sawhney in the UK. She has also lent vocals for various albums and films in India. Divya Kasturi’s work has been seen all over the world including in New York, Sydney, Paris, and Mumbai.
She has performed in Theatre de Complicite’s acclaimed production ‘A Disappearing Number’ which was broadcast through NT live series worldwide in cinemas. She has also worked in Indian television media spanning a portfolio of tasks including program anchoring, conceptualizing, directing and presenting a dance learning series for kids. She has also performed for the BBC. She is currently a QuestLab artist with Studio Wayne McGregor.
A Diverse Career
Divya Kasturi... beyond dance
Music
Divya is formally trained in Indian classical music (carnatic) and has lent vocals for internationally acclaimed composers: Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Nitin Sawhney and Maestro Ilayaraja. Divya owes her musical instincts to her mother, Smt Booma Kasturi, who is a classical vocal music performer in India. Her mom initiated vocal lessons in classical carnatic music and subsequently, she went on to train from Prof. Shri T.V. Gopalakrishnan. She continues her advanced level training with senior Guru Vidushi Smt. Janaky Ramanujam. Divya is also an experienced stage performer, having sung for films and albums. She also gives regular classical vocal concerts in India.
Theatre
Divya has worked with one of the leading British theatre companies Complicite, in their multi-award winning production A Disappearing Number, directed by the acclaimed director/actor Simon McBurney. She has rendered vocals and co-choreographed the dance sequence in the play apart form being one of the cast. Completing nearly 200 odd shows , touring all over the world since 2007, the three year intensive international stages included New York(Broadway), Sydney, India & other European countries as well as the West End in London.
TV
Divya’s foray into television began in 1997 as an anchor for a private channel. Subsequently, she was drawn into facilitating a host of shows spanning a range of fields such as musical shows, film-oriented programs, live phone-in capsules, general knowledge quiz shows, English news casting, on-site news broadcasting, election analyses and debates, interviews, regional and national live event emcee-ing and dance –show directing. Her TV work includes:
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Anchoring more than 250 episodes of ‘Hollywood Times’ – a popular South Indian TV show.
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Conceptualizing and presenting a dance teaching series for kids in a leading television channel.
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Starring in the BBC production titled “Classically Bollywood” telecast in July 2008.
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Featuring in cameo roles in Tamil movies and TV soaps.
Radio and Voice-Over
Divya’s voice has featured in many South Indian radio commercials , FM advertisements, web portals, marketing and corporate promotional materials. She has also had the opportunity to dub voices for Tamil and English movies. Divya lent her voice for the first ever multimedia DVD in Tamil on computer education. Consequently, she also sang and vocalized a whole series of Tamil language tutorial DVD’s produced for Malaysia and Singapore. Divya was part of the audio version of the play, A Disappearing Number performed for BBC Radio in 2008.