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Threads of Change is a discussion with the artists of my production ‘One Dha At A Time’ which premiered in Leeds last year. It stemmed from my embodied inquiry on Kathak performance, dramaturgy and intercultural theatre during my MA at Northern School. I was keen on understanding if this inquiry could be extended to dance styles other than Kathak. So, I asked some fantastic dancers if they would like to create a piece in response to this inquiry. This little prompt resulted in staging One Dha At A Time, an experimental South Asian performance in November 2023.
One year on, we thought it was the perfect time to regroup and reflect on the creative process and our individual journeys since. We have artist, researcher, and writer Venu Parijat moderating the session. We hope to contribute to the evolving narratives around South Asian classical dance through this discussion.
Please join us on Saturday, 23rd November at 11 am (GMT) or 4.30 pm (IST) for an online discussion. To receive the link, please register your name here – Threads of Change
For more information: Get in touch on 9819863513 or email shivani.jatar@yahoo.in or DM Shivani at @nautchyourgirl
About the participants
Venu Parijat is a performing arts professional with expertise in Bharatanatyam dance, movement translation, and research. She shares narratives and reflections from her experiences in America and England, engaging in choreography, curation, writing, and research. Currently residing in London, she will be moderating the discussion.
Shivani Jatar is a dancer, choreographer and producer who works with Kathak dance, is inspired experimental theatre and seeks to present contemporary expressions through classical dance. She has extensive training in classical Kathak, and a penchant for creative production which she has honed through projects like ArtsComeOnline (2020), One Dha At A Time (2023) and Threads of Change (2024). For the past year, Shivani has spent her time teaching, performing and facilitating in community settings with the support of the King’s Trust (UK). She was also the recipient of the prestigious DYCP grant from Arts Council England to explore her creative practice and choreographic inquiry.
Maryam Shakiba is a performing artist dedicated to sharing the beauty and richness of Odissi dance. Her practice focuses on the experience of inhabiting the body through dance and movement. She investigates themes of harmony and transcendent collective experience through immersion in devotional dance. These themes have worked within frameworks of rhythm and melody (Prelude to Pallavi, 2021), poetry (Embodying Rumi, 2022), and participatory performance (We Begin With Flowers, 2023). We Begin With Flowers premiered in One Dha At A Time in November 2023.
Dr. Debanjali Biswas is a researcher in social anthropology, dance and performance studies, and has extensively trained in Manipuri with a performing career of over two decades. She performed her work ‘Dvidehi’ which traces the story of Amba-Shikhandi from Mahabharata using two distinct stylistic dialects – Lasya and Tandava – of the Manipuri repertoire.
Kavya Iyer is a freelance dance artist and choreographer, and a Programmes Coordinator at Akademi (a leading South Asian dance organisation). Trained primarily in Bharatanatyam, she also practices Bollywood and Bhangra. She is driven by a vision to make South Asian dance more accessible and relatable; she views dance as a tool for questioning critical issues—social, cultural, artistic, global, shared, and personal. She developed her work ‘Don’t Tell Me What Bharatanatyam Is’ for One Dha At A Time last year.
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