Shri Justin McCarthy is an American-born noted Indian Bharatnatyam dancer, instructor and choreographer. He graduated from East Grand Rapids High School, Michigan in 1974 and learnt piano and received his early dance training at the Berkeley School of Dance. Later he moved to California, where in the mid ’70s after watching a Bharatanatyam performance at the Golden Gate Park, he soon started learning Bharatanatyam from two American dancers, Lesandre Ayrey and Mimi Janislauuski, students of the Balasaraswati. Subsequently he decided to leave for India. After moving to India he first trained under Subbaraya Pillai, a leading Guru of the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam in Chennai. Next he trained under Bharatanatyam danseuse Leela Samson for ten years at Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, Delhi. Meanwhile, he also learnt Tamil and Sanskrit languages, apart from learning Carnatic music vocal. Apart from a Western classical pianist, he is also a keyboardist and plays harpsichord, a baroque keyboard instrument. He has been living in Delhi for the past 30 years and has acquired Indian citizenship. Justin McCarthy entered dance choreography in the early 1990s with a poem from Sangam literature, ‘Madurai Kanch’i, still one of his noted works. Having learnt Carnatic music, he also compose music for his choreographic works. His choreographed ‘Kshetrayya’, based on the imagined life of a 17th-century poet-musician by the same name,’Rajavilasam — Splendours of the Courtesans’ performed by Gati Forum, ‘Where the streets are Fragrant with Sandalpaste…’ to name a few. He has also worked as an Associate Director for the short film ‘Koothu’. Currently, he is teaching Bharatanatyam at Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, with three decades of association with them and is the Director of Performing Arts at Ashok University.