Contemporary Dance Season, 2019

An NCPA Presentation

Pooja Pant Dance Company, Cyrus Khambatta Dance Company & Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts (approx. 120 mins)

Story of a T-Shirt by Pooja Pant

Pooja Pant is a performer, choreographer, mentor and Founder-Director of Pooja Pant Dance Company. Pant has performed at various dance festivals like the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, NCPA Umang, Contacting the World Festival in the UK, Hema Malini’s Jaya Smriti Festival, etc. Known for her technical finesse, delicate abhinaya and unique choreographies, she is the first Indian classical dancer to have performed at the Lawrence Olivier Awards in London and has acquired many accolades for her choreography in the musical Umrao Jaan Ada. Holding a Master’s degree in Kathak, she is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the V.D. Paluskar Award, Menaka trophy, Singaar Mani, Nritya Nipun, among many. Story of a T-Shirt is about the garment industry, which is one of the most flourishing industries in the world. But have we ever given a thought to what goes into making a single T-shirt? The piece explores the impact of harmful chemicals used in textile production on human health and environment.

Earthquake, Begin Again & Pendulum by Cyrus Khambatta Dance Company

Cyrus Khambatta was born in Syracuse, New York, to parents of Asian-Indian and European descent. He founded the Khambatta Dance Company (KDC) while attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied dance and theatre. His choreographic works have been presented across the U.S., Europe, Russia, Latin America and Canada, commissioned by companies such as Ririe Woodbury Dance (Salt Lake City), Pisorrojo (Caracas, Venezuela), Spectrum Dance Theatre, Evergreen City Ballet as well as KDC and others. He received California’s Damen New Choreography Award, was selected for an Artistic Leadership programme by Dance USA, was Seattle University Artist-in-Residence (2011) and most recently, was nominated for the prestigious Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. His work with KDC has been supported by numerous funding and government agencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Paul Allen Foundation and others. He is the Artistic Director of the Seattle International Dance Festival, now in its 14th year.

Dashanan by Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts

Knowledge with anxiety, wisdom with wickedness, and power with smugness transpire the choreography Dashanan. Inspired by Ramayana’s mythological figure Ravana, aka Dashanan, the ten-headed, the piece journeys through ten distinct ideologies of Ravana imagined in the present that contretemps himself against the backdrop of a successful failure. The movement vocabulary is a mix of Graham-inspired physicality and Yakshagana, an Indian traditional theatre form that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up and stage techniques. Sumeet Nagdev, as a child, studied gymnastics and mallakhamb at Shivaji Park and was more interested in sports before he started his training in folk dance. He then slowly moved to studying jazz, ballet and modern dance with Oscar Unger, Veronica Balsara and Mahesh Mahbubani, respectively.

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