FostertheLoveofDance
Bay Area Creative Dance Academy — a community of dancers, artists, and friends staging classical, contemporary, and fusion Indian dance from the San Francisco Bay Area since 2002.
Classical, contemporary,
and fusion Indian dance.
Twenty-five years of dance, told in movement.
We're celebrating BACDA's silver jubilee — a quarter century of classical, contemporary, and fusion Indian dance from the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Est.
- 2002
- Nonprofit
- 2018
- Productions
- 20+
- Dancers
- 100+
A community of dancers
Registered NGO
NABC, originals, recitals
Across the U.S. & beyond
Bay Area · Since 2002
More than a dance group.
A community built on bonding,
love, and a passion for dance.
Bay Area Creative Dance Academy began in 2002 as a circle of dancers and friends in the South Bay. Sixteen years later, in 2018, we became a registered nonprofit — but the heart of it is still the same room of people showing up for each other through rehearsals, monthly meet-ups, and the rituals of putting up a show.
Two decades in, BACDA stages original musical productions, anchors marquee community events like NABC, and collaborates with renowned artists across India and the diaspora. We dance because it bonds us — and we use that bond, in turn, to give back.
Programming in flight
We’re on the floor
between productions.
BACDA is actively rehearsing the next program. In the meantime, the archive speaks for itself — twenty-plus productions since 2002, across NABC ceremonies, original musical productions, and community festival nights.
Our musical
productions.
BACDA isn't only a stage company that shows up at NABC — we write, choreograph, and stage our own full-length musical productions. Four are named below.
- 01 · 2018Raabta
Maiden BACDA production
The company's debut full-length musical — a fusion piece weaving classical idioms with original score. The work that made BACDA, BACDA.
- 02 · 2020Bodhayon
Original musical
A BACDA production exploring myth and movement — not an NABC ceremony, but a fully-staged narrative work of the company's own.
- 03Ehsaas
Original musical
Devised choreography on memory and feeling — a quieter, more intimate register from the same company that does big stages.
- 04 · 2025Kingdom of Dreams
Original musical
BACDA's most recent full-length — a Bollywood-scale dance theater piece staged across two evenings.
- See every production
Moments from the archive.
Where we've danced.
Beyond our own productions, BACDA has been entrusted with the largest community stages in the diaspora — NABC ceremonies, cultural festivals like Kala Mahotsav and Bangamela, and a marquee SAP Center program for the Prime Minister's Bay Area address.
Marquee stages
NABC
2009 · 2012 · 2017
Opening and closing ceremonies for the North American Bengali Conference — three editions, each in front of audiences in the tens of thousands.
Cultural festival
Kala Mahotsav
2014 · 2015
A festival of dance, music, and theater — BACDA presented commissioned ensemble work across two consecutive editions.
Community festival
Bangamela
Bay Area
BACDA has been a recurring presence at Bangamela — the Bay Area's largest open-air Bengali cultural gathering.
Inaugural performance
PM Modi · SAP Center
2015
BACDA performed at the inaugural Bay Area address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — a 18,000-seat arena, a 6-minute opening, and one of the company's most-watched programs.
Coming up · 2026
NABC
An ensemble of dancers from across the United States, collaborating with Kumar Sharma of Kathak Rockers on artistic direction.
BACDA returns to the NABC stage in 2026 with its largest cross-country company yet. Currently in development.
In the room with
renowned artists.
BACDA programs have been choreographed by and developed with some of the most respected names in Indian classical and contemporary dance — across India and the diaspora.
Tanushree Shankar
Choreographer · Tanusree Shankar Dance Company
Workshops & program direction
Mallika Sarabhai
Dancer & cultural icon · Darpana Academy
Choreography collaboration
Luna Poddar
Choreographer & dance educator
Original program work
… and many more across two decades of programs.
We are a
community
first.
Dance is the reason we gather — but the bond is what stays. BACDA has grown into a community that supports its dancers, celebrates together, and gives back to communities far beyond the Bay Area.
- 01
Community
Monthly meet-ups
We don't only meet in rehearsal. Every month, BACDA gathers — dancers, families, friends — to celebrate togetherness through dance, food, and the rituals that hold a community together.
- 02
Charity · India
Laptops to the Sundarbans
BACDA has donated laptops to underprivileged students in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal — supporting access to education for children living far from the resources of a city.
- 03
Charity · India
School buildings
We have helped fund and promote school-building work across rural West Bengal — small contributions year on year toward better classrooms for children whose families cannot otherwise afford them.
“We are more than a dance group. We are a community that thrives on bonding, love, and a passion for dance.”
— BACDA, in its own words
Stage yours next.
Whether you dance, host, sponsor, or simply love the form — BACDA is built on the people who show up. Tell us how you want to be part of the next program.