The magic that is the pristine art form of Bharatanatyam captured Soumya Tilak, when she was as little as 2. As she became intently interested in dancing, her parents decided to enroll her into formal classes at the age of 4, under Kalaimamani Sri. S. Natarajan (of Melattur Bhagavata Mela fame). Soumya began her initial training under him and his daughter Smt. Priyamvadha Murali (a senior student of Padmasri Smt. Chitra Visweswaran) in Dubai, UAE.
biography
In 1997, Soumya's parents decided to move the family to Chennai, India, the hub of Bharatanatyam, to further nurture her talent and hone her skills. In Chennai, she restarted her learning process under Dr. Vijay Madhavan (also a senior student of Smt. Chitra Visweswaran), at his dance school, Rechita Nrutyalaya. With Dr. Vijay, an immensely accomplished artist well known for his brilliant choreography, Soumya's parents knew that her passion for the art form were in the right hands, as Dr. Vijay was an exceptional teacher who imparted knowledge in a holistic manner and skillfully moulded each student into well rounded artists with cognate skills like nattuvangam, choreography, dance theory, stagecraft etc.
After 2 years, in 1999, under the able guidance of her Guru Dr. Vijay and the support and encouragement of her parents, Soumya performed her Arangetram, the solo full length debut performance, which was well received and appreciated. Soumya has the pride of being the first Arangetram performer for her Guru Vijay, then only aged 23, marking him as the youngest teacher to debut a student. There began her formal journey as a Bharatanatyam performer.
Since then, Soumya has been performing in several prestigious venues in India including Brahma Gana Sabha, Kartik Fine Arts, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts, Gana Mukundapriya Sabha, Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, Samskara Bharathi, Delhi Tamil Sangam among many others as well as in the Middle East and the United States, and has also won several awards and titles, most noteworthy being, "Meritorious Performer" by Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, "Best Dancer Award", "VAA Top Artist" etc by VDS Arts Academy, Outstanding Performance Award by Samskara Bharathi, "Natya Choodamani" title by Gana Mukundapriya Sabha among others. Soumya also has the achievement of being the recipient of the VDS Arts Academy Dance Scholarship three times.
Soumya's passion to share her art form with the world did not stop at just performing to audiences. She loved to mentor her juniors at Rechita Nrutyalaya as a young teenager as well, and over time, with the blessings of her Guru, she began teaching students formally since 2003.
Now settled in San Jose, California, Soumya continues to spread her art to audiences as well as her students, who have performed in several venues and have garnered the appreciation of audiences and have won top prizes in competitions.
​
Soumya Tilak still continues to perform as a soloist and travels to India regularly to perform during the world famous Margazhi Music and Dance Festival in Chennai, and still continues to deepen her learning under her Guru Dr. Vijay Madhavan; the Guru-Sishya relationship is an everlasting bond as there is no end to learning.
​
In 2018, Soumya founded Nritya Samooha, a California Non Profit Organization, to unite all Indian Classical Dancers and Affiliated Artists under one single entity and serve the entire community by giving different platforms to learn from each other and collaborate with each other.