The fledgling group was born in September of 2000 when a group of people who shared a passion for dance got together and decided to pool their talents, creativity and energy towards a mission. The mission is to create vibrant dance pieces that will showcase the rich and diverse heritage of the Indian subcontinent to a broad audience And in the process raise funds that can be channeled towards worthy causes. Nipa Sheth, an avid dancer who has been pursuing Bharatnatyam for over two decades and Kalpana Krishnamurthy, who is a student of Kathak, co-founded Zingaris. They attracted 10 enthusiastic dancers who formed the core group of Zingaris. This group choreographed exhuberant folk dance pieces to lilting melodies from various regions of India and showcased them where ever possible.

In the past two years, Zingaris has taken part in numerous competitions and cultural festivals in Northern and Southern California. We feel priviledged to have won the first prizes in the ICSC Dance competition in 2000 and the LA Dance Competition 2001. We have performed for the Stanford India Association, Asha - Berkeley (Images of India), CRY fundraiser for the Gujarat Earthquake Relief Efforts and Net-IP fund raiser.

February 9th 2002 is a date that will be one of the most memorable for us. Zingaris' hosted their first full scale independent production called Festival of Dance, in collaboration with Asha-Berkeley. Asha, is a non-profit organization which focuses on providing basic education to underprivilidged children in India with the belief that education is critical in catalyzing socio-economic change. The show was sold out to an audience of over 900 people, raising $12000 and the proceeds were donated to support Asha's projects.

Over the past two years, Zingaris has grown to over 100 members. Zingaris was formed in the Silicon Valley and is entirely composed of volunteers who are working professionals. We have a colful team of immensely talented choreographers and dancers whose expertise range from classical to folk and from fusion to contemporary. dance styles are deeply rooted in Indian culture, but open to the influences of collaborations with current trends. Many of choreographers have synthesized their experiences to come up with exciting and creative pieces. We hope to broaden horizons by adding a more global array of dance styles to repertoire as we move forward towards an exciting future!