Justin McCarthy

Early life and training Justin McCarthy was born and brought up in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a family of Irish descent. He graduated from East Grand Rapids High School in 1974. He 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 his move to India, he first trained under Subbaraya Pillai, a leading Guru of the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam at 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. he is also a keyboardist, plays harpsichord, a baroque keyboard instrument and teaches piano to young children. He has been living in Delhi for the past 30 years and has acquired Indian citizenship.

In 2010, his dance repertoire troupe, presented a production Lokaalokam, a fusion of three Indian classical dance forms, Chhau, Kathak and Bharatanatyam at the "Ananya Dance Festival" in Delhi's 16th-century Purana Qila.