Meet the Team
Venkatesh Acharya, Instructor & Director
Born and brought up in a small town on the shores of sun kissed Arabian Sea, Udupi in India. Udupi is famous for food, music and dance. Venkatesh grew up eating, dancing while enjoying music. He has learnt classical dance form Bharathanatyam, and Yakshagaana the folk style. He grew up watching Bollywood movies and dance. He used to be the official choreographer for all the dance events at his high school, college and his family functions. He has Zumba, Strong, Aqua, and BollyX certifications. He is trained to teach fitness classes to seniors as well. Come and enjoy one of his fun packed Bollywood fitness classes. You will leave the class wanting to dance more. When he is not dancing you will find him biking around town lake, attending indian classical concerts.
Jyothi Poruri, Instructor
Jyothi Poruri is a trained dancer in Bharatnatyam and various forms of non-classical dance. After successfully completing her Arangetram and running a Bharatnatyam dance school in Pennsylvania, she shifted her focus to Bollywood dancing, Bollyhop, semi classical and Garba. In addition to being an instructor at the Agni Dance Academy with 7 semesters under her belt, Jyothi is a popular instructor at AgniFit with a tenure of over 10 years and a proud member of the Agni Performance Team. She loves to take her passion for dancing to various social events like the Diwali at the Domain and garba events around town and is forever grateful to her dance family for lighting up her world!
Sarika Sabnis, Instructor
Sarika has been part of Agni dance since 2015. Since 2020, she has been Agnifit instructor infusing Bollywood dance with fitness, incorporating multiple dance forms into each of them. Whenever Sarika is not dancing, she works as Marketing and Proposal Coordinator for a globally based Architecture/Engineering/Construction company. Her dance motto - No experience is required, just a willingness to get loose! Agnifit team thinks her sense of humor is one notch higher than the entire team.
Arthy Saravanan, Instructor
Arthy began as a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and has evolved to enjoy all forms of Bollywood dancing! She loves to incorporate the fun part of dance with fitness and has found her niche in bollywood fitness! When she's not dancing, Arthy practices as a physician in the Austin community. She loves to spend her time with her two little girls.
Poojah Rau, Instructor
Poojah is a dance enthusiast whose love for movement began in childhood. Trained in basics of various style slow jazz, hip hop and folk dance at John Brittos Dance academy in India, she has performed in various dance shows , competition and cultural events in Austin. Balancing life as a mom of two girls , a wife and a working professional, she understands how easily health can take a back seat. Dance became her joyful way to stay active. Today, she is passionate about inspiring community to move, sweat, and have fun while embracing a healthier lifestyle.