About Kavita
Background & Lineage
Kavita Kat Macmillan is an interdisciplinary vocalist, musician, and performer whose work bridges yoga, somatic practice, devotional singing, and creative awakening. Using devotional practice, mantra, sound yoga, and ritual, Kavita guides participants to discover authentic voice, embodied movement, and deep listening in relationship to themselves, their ancestors, and the natural world.
Kavita’s guidance, through her in-depth mentorships, retreats, and workshops, helps catalyze people of all backgrounds and ages to shed inhibition, dissolve blocks, and access their unique, authentic voice, and seat of creativity within.
Kavita facilitates at retreats, workshops, private & group classes & spiritual festivals and is an open, supportive guide for those who wish to explore this path. Her Sound Sanctuary Mentorship community is in it’s 4th year and continues to create a strong container for aspiring Kirtan artists as well as those interested in personal Sacred Sound practice to grow in skill, confidence and connected experience.
Kavita has shared the stage with artists such as Jai Uttal, Krishna Das, Gina Sala, Benjy & Heather Wertheimer, David Newman, Dave Stringer, Daniel Paul, Steve Gorn, and others.
Kavita’s most recent album ‘The Beloved Lives Inside’ is available streaming worldwide and features Jai Uttal, Daniel Paul, Steve Gorn, Hans Christian, Will Marsh, Ram Dass Khalsa and other deep musicians. www.kavitakatmacmillan.com. Kavita also contributes to compilation albums and is featured on the Bhaktimala for Ram Dass with “Sweet Sri Hanuman Chalisa” and on the new Gods and Goddesses compilations for the Know Thyself as Soul organization “Guru Kripa Hanuman Chalisa.”
Kavita’s follow up album “This is Love” will be released in 2026.
Kavita playing tambura
Indian Classical Music
Concurrent to training extensively in yoga while living in NYC, Kavita met and began to study with musician and composer Michael Harrison, a western disciple of Guru Pandit Pran Nath. Through Michael, Kavita was led to study with other great senior disciples of Pandit Pran Nath including Sri Karunamayee, formerly of the Sri Aurobindo ashram in Delhi, who Kavita would go to India to study with. It was Karunaji who gave Kat the name Kavita, which means "muse or poet."
Other prominent teachers that have transmitted their teachings to Kavita include the master singer of the Kirana Gharana Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, as well as Rik Masterson, senior disciple of Pandit Pran Nath. Kavita currently studies music with internationally recognized vocalist and composer Warren Senders and Naad yoga and Chakra energetics wtih Sri Shyamji Bhatnagar.
Kavita’s study of Sacred Sound is a continuing personal practice that influences both the compositions that she writes and the way she teaches voice and harmonium. This focus is on sound as a path to union with the divine, Nada Brahma.
Sri Karunamayee speaking with Marcus Boon (Ascent Magazine 2002):
Performance
Kavita Kat Macmillan 2015
San Miguel Allende, Mexico
From the play “Last Dance.”
Photo by Holly Wilmeth
“Whether we explore the Self through words, images, music or movement, we symbolically offer a vision and a statement about that which we are. We help define and shape collective ideals by undertaking this journey into ourselves. Butoh can lead us back to our rebellions, our private wars, our wounded selves, and through the process brings what is hidden into the light. The process is deeply healing and transformative.”
Vangeline, Butoh dancer and artistic director of The Vangeline Theater and The New York Butoh Institute
Kavita began training in theater as a child. As a young adult living in Los Angeles, a dance teacher led her to Yoga, encouraging Kavita to move to NYC and continue to explore the world of movement and performance. There Kavita met Vangeline and became deeply compelled by the dance form of Butoh.
Evolving from post WWII Japan, the practice of Butoh - not unlike yoga and finding authentic voice - involves a stripping away of the layers of the masked self in order to reveal the truth of ones essence. Through this process, one is able to literally dance their transformation and open to the possibility for cathartic healing and change.
Kavita was one of the original members of the Vangeline Theater, a contemporary Butoh dance company based in New York City and founded by preeminent dancer, choreographer, & artist Vangeline. She now continues to train, teach and present dance in Portland, Oregon and internationally.
Through the lens of Butoh Kavita was led back into the theater - performing in original plays, creating movement scores, and coaching performers with movement training and choreography.
As a life practice, Butoh is woven through Kavita’s work. It’s become an invaluable tool to move through experiences and patterns of being, always returning her to the authentic Self connecting us all and the strength of spirit.
For information about current performance offerings & workshops, contact Kavita directly.
Read a review of “The 1 Festival” where Kavita performed an original dance “For Rosa” from Oregon Arts Watch.
Kavita Kat Macmillan Portland, OR 2015. Photo by Jen Scholten