Shalini Thoniyil is a graduate student and assistant teacher at Tala Shruti School of Dance. She has been training under Guru Renuka Srinivasan for the past sixteen years and completed her arangetram with her dance partner Megha Nair in August 2016. Now entering her fourth year at Rutgers University, Shalini is pursuing a master’s degree in K-12 English education in hopes of becoming a high school English teacher and part-time professor.