Company
Karishma Sharma
Founder & Artistic Director
Monsoon Dance Company (MDC) was founded by artistic director Karishma Sharma, a Bay Area choreographer, performer, a Kathak practitioner and dance educator. She trained in Kathak with Anuradha Nag and continued her choreographic practices with Urja Thakore and Sanjukta Sinha. Karishma performed in the works of Anuradha Nag, Nirmala Madhava, Urja Thakore, Sanjukta Sinha and National Award Winning Choreographer Shiamak Davar. Karishma studied contemporary dance with Mary Carbonara and Cathy Davalos. Karishma holds degrees in Computer Science and an MFA in Dance, Creative Practice.
As an established choreographer, Karishma has created two full length kathak and contemporary works Finding My Dha (2025) and Shifting Boundaries: Conversations with Kathak (2022), two dance films and fifteen student showcases. She has collaborated with Spruce Ritual Indian Classical Ensemble (2025). Her work has been supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and CA$H Grant Awards.
Guided by Karishma, Monsoon Dance Company provides an artistic platform that continues to nurture interdisciplinary collaboration and empowers performing artists to explore and excel across diverse creative avenues.
Ruchi Gupta
Company Member/Instructor & Production Manager
Ruchi Gupta is a company dancer and production operations manager for Monsoon Dance Company (MDC) where she plays a vital role both on stage and behind the scenes. She has studied tap dance for 15 years. She started her Kathak training in 2017 under the guidance of Karishma at MDC, deepening her understanding and expression of Indian classical dance. Ruchi has performed in MDC’s dance films Roshay, Shifting Boundaries: Conversations with Kathak (2022) and Finding My Dha (2025). She has also performed with MDC at the CA Dances Festival. Beyond her dance career, Ruchi works as a technical program manager at Stripe and enjoys spending time with her two dogs.
Poonam Singh
Company Member
Poonam Singh is a company dancer with Monsoon Dance Company. She trained in Kathak for ten years at Chitresh Das Institute in the Bay area. She continues to deepen her Kathak practice under Karishma’s guidance at MDC. She holds the position of Design Engineering Director at Broadcom, balancing a career in technology alongside her artistic pursuits. Since joining MDC in 2022, she has performed at notable events including the CA Dances Festival and CDEA in January 2023, as well as the Rhydhun Showcase in Redwood City in 2024. She made her debut in MDC’s first evening-length work Finding my Dha bringing her dream of performing professionally to life in this evolving art form.
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş
Company Member
Maxine is a poet, filmmaker, and dance artist from Mill Valley, CA. She holds a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch and an MA in Dance Philosophy & History from the University of Roehampton, London. While in New York, she danced in the works of contemporary choreographers Sidra Bell, Lar Lubovitch, Wayne McGregor, and Trisha Brown.
Maxine collaborated with Karishma to teach a combined Kathak and Contemporary dance workshop at Monsoon Dance Studio and ROCO Dance Studio. She filmed Karishma’s dance film A Leaf Falls (2021) and performed in Karishma’s first full length evening work “Shifting Boundaries: Conversations with Kathak (2022). She is looking forward to performing in Monsoon Dance Company’s second project “Finding My Dha.”
