Maleni Chaitoo

Maleni Chaitoo is a native Chelsea, New Yorker who has a long-standing passion for performing arts. Her parents are immigrants of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies - accustoming her to Indian and British-Caribbean cultures. When she was 2 and half years old, she was captivated by a ballet performance at her older sister's recital. It was then that she fell in love with dance - finding the physical movement and facial expressions akin to that of signing. She was enthusiastic to take dance classes despite the skepticism of her mother who felt that her deafness was a hindrance to learning how to dance ballet. Fortunately, a ballet teacher encouraged her to pursue dancing and put her in the front row of her class. After a few weeks of rehearsals, she was ready to perform on stage. To her mother's surprise, the audience cheered with great enthusiasm and commended her performance. This was the beginning of a life-long passion for the arts. At the age of 3, she became involved in numerous th