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Ananya Chatterjea-Image Courtesy of Ananya Dance Theater
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Featured in Ms. Magazine’s millennial issue as one of the “choreographers who are still pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a woman and a dancer,†and named as “Best Choreographer of 2007†by City Pages, Ananya Chatterjea is dancer, choreographer, dance scholar, and dance educator, who envisions her work in the field of dance as a “call to action†with a particular focus on women artists of color. She is the Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, and Associate Professor and Director of Dance in the Dept. of Theater Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Trained initially in Indian classical and folk dance traditions, she became a well-known exponent of the Odissi style of classical dance under the tutelage of her internationally acclaimed guru, Sanjukta Panigrahi, at a young age. She performed and toured widely at this time, dancing with more community based companies such as the Ashramic Sangha and Government initiatives such as the Inter-state Cultural Exchange Programs. Increasingly, however, the market forces that have come to govern the performance of “classical†forms drew her away from this work towards creating a form that could allow for the articulation of a feminine subjectivity and politics.
Disillusioned with the commercialization that had become attendant upon Indian classical dance forms, and vitally interested in the creation of a contemporary Indian dance mode, Ananya began her explorations of form and theme in dance in the 1980’s. Now she has formalized an idiom that is based on deconstructions of movements from classical dance forms, primarily Odissi, and yoga, and the martial art form, Chhau. Ananya is indebted for her choreographic insights to the gurus and teachers she worked with in India, from whom she imbibed ideas about alternative choreographic structures. However, it is through her study of street theater and feminist praxis across the world that she arrived at her fierce commitment to the immediate relationship between bodily artistic practices and social justice movement.
Ananya is the proud recipient of grants from prestigious organizations such as the Asian Arts Initiative, McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, as well as a prestigious artist fellowship from the Bush Foundation. In 2001, she was featured as an “Artist of the Year†in the City Pages, and in 2005, she was named a “Changemaker†by the Women’s Press in Minnesota. She is also the proud recipient of awards from the BIHA (Black Indian Hispanic Asian) Women In Action organization and from the MN Women’s Political Caucus, and recently the 21 leaders for the 21st Century Award from Women’s E-News (http://www.womensenews.org/21leaders2007.cfm), a national women-centered news organization, for her work weaving together community-building and artistic excellence and creating a space for women’s voices through artistic practices. She was recently honored by the Josie Johnson Social Justice and Human Rights Award at the University of Minnesota.
Recent performances include National Academy for Performing Arts (Port of Spain, Trinidad, 2010), Dance Theater Workshop (NYC, 2010); Underground Theater (Syracuse, 2008); New World Theater (Amherst, 2007); Museum Theater (Singapore, 2007); Conwell Theater (Philadelphia, 2007); Contemporary Asian Dance Festival (Osaka, 2006); Indonesian Dance Festival (Jakarta, 2006); Women Artists for Peace Festival (Delhi, 2004); Harborfront Theater (Toronto, Cananda, 2003, 2004); Habitat Center (Delhi, India, 2003); National Center for Performing Arts (Bombay, India, 2003); Philippines Cultural Center (Manila, Philippines, 2003) Theaterlabor (Bielefeld, Germany, 2002); Under the Stars Festival (Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, 2002); and Nehru Center (London, UK, 2002). She has been artist-in-residence at Univ. of Surrey (2005), Performing Arts School (Singapore, 2003), and MIT’s Dept. of Theater and Dance (2001, 2002). She was selected to be a Ford Foundation Delegate to Delhi (2002) and an artist in a creativity pilot project initiated by the UK Arts Council (2001). Her work is celebrated as creating a unique model for bringing together the “fierce commitment, high energy, and quiet grace†of her artistry, a feminist consciousness, and empowerment work with several communities of color, for having expanded the emotional and formal boundaries of Indian dance, and for the passion of her own dancing.
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Saturday 26th 1-3@ praxis place.
Master Class: Contemporary Indian Dance:
Exploring a Feminine, Feminist Vocabulary
Notes: This is a relatively advanced level technique class based on the
Odissi classical style of Indian dance, the martial movement form Chhau,
and Iyengar style yoga. These forms are deconstructed and then extended
to create a contemporary South Asian movement/dance form. We will
focus on the exploration of several principles: Articulation of the spine,
Footwork and rhythmic floor patterns, Hip flexion and torso movement,
Breath work. Please arrive dressed in fitting clothes, preferably shorts, so I
can see your knees. We will dance bare-feet, and shoes will not be allowed
in class. I will touch students and work with them closely on issues of
alignment. If you do not wish to be touched, please inform me ahead of
time so I can respect your privacy. $15 general and $12 dollars low income/ students.
(2 hrs)
to rsvp contact celiaandchristianbambaradance@gmail.com
Masterclass in Indian Contemporary Dance. Dr. Ananya Chatterjea F
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Sunday 27 March, 10-12 @ praxis place
Conversations with Dancemakers :
This dialogue will engage dancemakers
working with non-mainstream, non-western movement aesthetics and will
productively work-out understandings of how artists define
“contemporary” work? What might be the relationship of this
“contemporary” to ideas of “tradition” within that cultural context,
and to mainstream forms from the western stage such as modern and
postmodern dance?
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-Tea and assorted pastries will be made available for brunch.
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(2 hrs)
to rsvp contact celiaandchristianbambaradance@gmail.com
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co-sponsored by
DEFIBRILLATOR
and
Soham Dance Space
Monday March 28th, 2pm-4pm
Ananya Chatterjea Lecture at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Cardinal Room, Student Center East
The talk will be about Chatterjea’s journey as an artist and as an Asian woman working with a diverse group of women artists of color. She will share some of the questions and conflicts in the journey of creating and performing work. These are also questions that trouble relationships among and across various communities of color. She will discuss issues in contemporary choreography by Asian artists, and their relationship with curators and producers in the global cultural market.
Co-sponsored by the Department’s of Women and Gender Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Free and open to the public!
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