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Dance

Sangita Shresthová (Nepal)

Dancer, choreographer and filmmaker – classical Indian dance bharata natyam, Nepali dance Charya Nritya, bollywood dance, contemporary dance, documentary films.

Sangita dances in the styles of Bharat Natyam (Indian Dance), Charya Nritya (Nepalese Dance) and Kalaripayat (South Indian Martial Art). She has performed classical and new choreography in Sri Lanka, India, Belgium, Nepal, the Czech Republic and United States. Sangita initially trained in Kathmandu, Nepal and later completed her Bharat Natyam studies under Smt. Malathi Srinivasan in Chennai, India. She also received a certificate in Theater and Dance from Princeton University. Sangita has danced with Aparna Sindhoor’s Navarasa Dance Theater (Boston, MA) and belongs to the Dance Theater of Nepal (NYC). She continues to perform with the Boston-based Lasandhi Dance Theater which participated at Jacob’s Pillow in August 2003.

Sangita combines her dance and choreography practice with regular lectures, workshops and classes in which she stresses dance and performance traditions as embodied expressions of cultural and personal meaning. She has taught dance workshops and lectured on dance, bodies, culture and South Asian identities as a visiting artist on college campuses including Harvard University, Yale University and MIT. She has taught intensive workshops in Bharat Natyam, Kalaripayat and more recently on the underlying principles of Hindi film dancing in several European cities including Prague, Czech Republic and Brussels, Belgium. In these classes and other public appearances (including television and radio interviews) she emphasizes dance as a catalyst for cultural dialogue and exchange. Sangita has also taught experiential workshops and led discussions on the similarities and differences between Indian classical dance, folk dance and movements inspired by Hindi films.

Sangita’s own compositions collage performance traditions with media projections, and other dance forms to explore current issues affecting the South Asian subcontinent and its diaspora. Created with support from MIT’s Council for the Arts and presented at the “MIT2 Globalization and Convergence” Conference, Bollyspace, a Bollywood Interactive Media and Dance Performance, investigated dances in popular Hindi films as mediators of cultural identity for second generation Indian-Americans and presented performance as a site of cultural reception. Ashapurna Ankha, her media/performance collage on Nepal’s current Maoist conflict, was included in the AIGA Boston/ATE Massaging Media Conference at MassArt Boston, MA in November 2002. In 2003, she received the Council for the Arts at MIT Wiesner award for her work in the creative arts.

Sangita graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University (BA Politics and German Literature/Theater and Dance), and received an MSc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She recently graduated from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program where she focused on the role entertainment media play in defining cultural identity and change in South Asia.
Download sample - video

Projects:

Solo performance of Indian classical dance bharata natyam


Post Natyam Collective:
Dance collective of Indian dancers connecting Eastern and Western cultures in its artistic forms.
The Post Natyam Collective explores Contemporary Indian Dance and Performance on a continuum of tradition and innovation, theory and aesthetics, and art and activism. Post Natyam consists of four choreographers / interdisciplinary artists- Sandra Chatterjee, Shyamala Moorty, Anjali Tata, and Sangita Shresthova - who met through their graduate studies at the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. Between the four, they are trained in various forms of dance including Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kalaripayattu, Polynesian dance, Yoga and Post Modern Dance. Sandra just completed her PhD in Culture and Performance, where she wrote about choreography, performance, the female body, theory and activism. Sangita is currently pursuing a PhD student exploring the intersections between South Asian trans-nationalisms, film and dance. Shyamala, MFA, has an acclaimed solo show and is a Lecturer at UCLA and CSU Pomona. Anjali, MFA, teaches dance and yoga in the Kansas City area.
In addition to venues across the United States, such as the Riverside Church Theater in New York City, Highways Performance Space, the Skirball Cultural Center and Japan American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, and the Painted Bride in Philadelphia, Post Natyam’s choreographic work has been performed in Munich, Bangalore and Kolkata (please find attached a list of performances by Post Natyam Collective members for 2004-2006, attachment

MEET THE GODESS
Experimental multimedia dance theatre of Post Natyam Collective based on Indian tradition is observing " a women" meeting " the Goddess".
Meet the Goddess is a collection of pieces dealing with women, exoticism, sensuality, and sexuality. The pieces are based on the movement language of our trans-cultural existences as South Asian Women brought up in Germany, the U.S., the Czech Republic and Nepal. In several thematically linked short pieces, the idea of the goddess is problematized as she is exotified, appropriated, and idolized, and yet she is also a vision of strength and female empowerment for the every day woman. Through dance and video this suite of pieces critically reflects issues including domestication, intimacy, friendship, motherhood, and objectification while challenging certain Hindu feminine ideals that are upheld in South Asia and its diaspora. All the pieces reflect our physical bodies, our relationships to either each other, to physical love and sensuality. (Attachment 1: list of pieces, with individual piece descriptions).


Bolly Natyam
Sangita is a co-founder and choreographers of dancing project Bolly Natyam working with aspects of bollywood dance with classical Indian dance base.


Teaching
Indian and Nepali dances, bollywood dance – seminars and workshops for beginners and advanced


Dancing Kathmandu
Sangita, a dancer of Czech-Nepali origin, journeys to Kathmandu to explore how practitioners in the Himalayan Kingdom negotiate Nepal's dance traditions in a period of rapid cultural change. In her attempts to map the current situation of dance in Kathmandu valley, she encounters her own teachers as well as younger dancers currently finding their way. Dancing Kathmandu tells stories of nostalgia, passion and survival through dance and dancers in the age of globalization.


Crew List/Film Information:
Director: Sangita Shresthová
Director of Photography: David Čálek
Editor: Lucie Haladová
Sound Mix: Marek Musil
Producers: David Čálek / Sangita Shresthová
Duration: 41 minutes
Country: Czech Republic / Nepal
Year: (c) 2007
www.bollynatyam.com

Prague Bollywood Film Festival www.bollywood.cz
Sangita is a cofounder and coorganizer of this festival