She continued her studies with Das’ disciple Joanna De Souza for the next 3 years. After establishing her professional harp career teaching and performing in the Vancouver area and holding the position of Principal Harpist with the Vancouver Island Symphony, Seibi made the decision in 1997 to move to the Bay Area to study Kathak with Pandit Das in the guru-shishya parampara, traditional one-on-one training. This formative experience continued until his passing in 2015. Seibi began performing with the Chitresh Das Dance Company in 1999 and was appointed to be Co-Director of the Chhandam School by Pandit Das in 2010. Currently, Seibi is Senior Instructor, Dean and Artistic Director of Chhandam School of Kathak, and guest faculty at the Leela Institute in LA, Sureela in Denver, and Chhandam Nritya Bharati in Mumbai. The depth and expansiveness of this art form is a great inspiration to Seibi and she has dedicated much of her life to passing the knowledge of  Das’s pedagogy through teaching and mentoring generations of teachers and dancers. Seibi is Co-Founder and Principal Dancer of Leela Dance Collective, a group led by senior disciples of Das that bases its philosophy on collaboration and collective creativity and whose work is strongly grounded in tradition yet boldly innovative.

Her passion and commitment to her own journey of the art and to building pride of Indian classical art amongst the South Asian community led her to emerge as a powerful role model amongst the Indian diaspora. In particular, Rachna has exceptional talent in teaching and training youth, making the art relevant, inspiring, and empowering to girls. By 2009, Pandit Chitresh Das himself appointed Rachna to be Co-Director of the Chhandam School along with Seibi Lee. Rachna and Seibi worked tirelessly directly under Pandit Das to institutionalize curriculum, build infrastructure, train teachers, develop Chhandam’s Nine Principles, create a summer camp program, direct school-wide dance dramas, and flourish the school into one of the world’s leading and most influential academies of North Indian classical dance. Rachna has also taught numerous kathak workshops, after-school programs, and outreach events/residencies to communities of all backgrounds, including at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Treme Center of New Orleans, Conservatory of Arts in Miami, Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, LA Tap Fest at Debbie Allen Dance Academy, National Center for Kathak Dance in New Delhi, and many more. Rachna was the successor to Pandit Das as Co-Artistic Director of the Chhandam School and Artistic Director of the Chhandam Youth Dance Company, shepherding excellence, leadership, and creative discovery amongst teens. She is also a founding artist of the Leela Dance Collective, an artist-led collective producing powerful works through the collective creativity of trailblazing women in Kathak. More recently, she has brought her lineage and philosophy of kathak to promising pre-professional adult students in New York City. She currently guest teaches at many of Leela’s affiliate schools, becoming one of the most sought-after kathak artists and teachers of her generation.

Rukhmani’s original works include SPEAK, a kathak-tap collaboration; Chandanbala, the story of the revered Jain saint interpreted through the Kathak tradition; and Son of the Wind, the story of India’s mythological hero, Hanuman, brought to life through dance-drama. She has received funding to create and tour her works by such prestigious institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, the California Arts Council, and the Zellerbach Family Fund. Prior to her work with the Leela Dance Collective, Rukhmani was a principal dancer with the Chitresh Das Dance Company, performing and touring with the company’s critically acclaimed productions including Shabd, Pancha Jati, and Sita Haran across the United States and in India. She has received the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant and twice been nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Company performance as part of the Chitresh Das Dance Company. She has performed at such prestigious venues/festivals nationally and in India as REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater), Meany Hall for Performing Arts (University of Washington), Tata Theater/NCPA in Mumbai, and the Shaniwarwada Dance Festival in Pune, as a soloist and with the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Rukhmani is also the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright award and researched the effectiveness of Kathak dance education as a social intervention in underprivileged communities in Mumbai, India. Rukhmani’s most ambitious initiative is The Leela Endowment, the first initiative of its kind, aimed at providing the financial infrastructure necessary to advance India’s rich artistic heritage.

She is also the author of an Instructor’s Manual for the college-level world music textbook Soundscapes (W.W. Norton, 3rd ed.) and regularly presents her research on kathak at academic conferences for national and international associations such as the Society for Ethnomusicology and the International Council for Traditional Music. As a visiting instructor at all Leela Academy locations, she particularly enjoys teaching Hindustani music skills to kathak dancers and has developed innovative methods that utilize movement exercises to help students identify notes and sing in tune.