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Dance Festival Committee Aroon Shivdasani Artistic & Executive Director, IAAC Rajika Puri, Curator Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Curator Parul Shah, Co-Curator Preeti Vasudevan Co-Curator Vasanti Mirchandani Hospitality Director Ramneek Kang Program Associate Thomas Kelso Accountant Jonathan Hollander Artistic Director, Battery Dance Company Satish Kolluri, Chair & Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Pace University |
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| Curators | |
| Rajika Puri, Curator | |
 Rajika Puritrained in Bharatanatyam and Odissi, and performed internationally in solo recitals, including a command performance for the President of Mexico. Currently, she focuses on developing different kinds of danced stories in which she sings, chants and narrates texts - in English and in Sanskrit – as she dances. (cf her "Ted India" INK talk on 'The Importance of Myth").
Major productions: Union Severed (Asia Society, ’05), Conversations with Shiva, (Joyce SoHo,’07), Devimalika (Duke @ 42nd St, ’08), Tapasya (Joyce SoHo, ’09). Her latest work is an hour-long retelling of the life of 'Helen of Troy': ELENI of SPARTA in which she sings in ancient Greek (Epic Women Festival, Chennai & Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi and on tour in Malaysia). An MA in the ‘Anthropology of Movement’ (NYU), Rajika writes, lectures, and gives workshops on Indian dance and theater, including onstage pre-performance talks for Indian dance shows (World Music Institute @ NYU Skirball, Cleveland Museum of Art). She also co-curates World Music Institute’s Dancing the Gods festival of Indian dance, & advises several NY dance presenters. Upcoming: An evening of danced stories from Indian myth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (November 20, 2015) |
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| Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Curator | |
 Uttara Asha Coorlawala
teaches dance courses at Barnard College/Columbia University, and at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School Professional Program. Earlier, her solo show brought modern dance, Bharatanatyam and yoga, to stages of India, Europe, East Europe, Japan and the United States as she represented both the USA and India as a cultural representative. She served as a Performing Arts advisor to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the National Center of Performing Arts, Mumbai, and greatly enjoys the challenges and social exchanges of co-curating the Erasing Borders Dance Festival, New York City. Uttara has served on various global dance research (CORD) and educational (International Baccalaureate or IB) committees. Her articles have been published in Discourses in Dance, Dance Research Journal and anthologies. Recently awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi ward for pioneering choreography, she is even more invested in the ongoing culture wars around global re-flows of body knowledges. |
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| Parul Shah, Co-Curator | |
 Parul Shah is an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer whose work is expanding the classical medium beyond cultural boundaries. With a dedication to excellence, Shah preserves the form’s aesthetic integrity while developing a unique and powerful vocabulary. Behind Shah’s work is decades of rigorous Kathak training under the world-renowned guru and choreographer, Padmashree Kumudini Lakhia. Parul’s repertoire illustrates the soulfulness of the Kathak form while establishing new ways of movement drawn from the classical style. Her work includes traditional solo pieces alongside compelling contemporary group choreographies. Shah’s New York studio is home to both the parul shah dance company and her training facility. She has presented her solo and group works at major venues around the world, including City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Jacobs Pillow and at the Japan Forum Foundation in Japan. She has collaborated on numerous international projects and presented in Asia, Europe, and North America. |
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| Preeti Vasudevan Co-Curator | |
 Award-winning choreographer and educator Preeti Vasudevan is an exponent of classical Bharatanatyam creating new provocative contemporary works from the Indian tradition. Original works performed by her company, Thresh, have earned international acclaim for their fresh juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary voices (2009 META award for The Absent Lover and 7 nominations in 2013 for Savitri- dancing in the forest of death). A few recent highlights include: 2015 DPA Atelier award, LIMS, NY; Artist in Residence, New York Live Arts (2015-16) NY; Commissioned new work, Veiled Moon, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015 (NY); Commissioned new work, Boxed, by Jacques D’Amboise’s National Dance Institute 2014 (NY); Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Connect 2014-15 (NY); Presenter for the 2013 TEDxBarnard (Columbia University); Judson Church (NY) 2013; Commissioned work, Drumming a Dream, by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2009) NY; Advance theater training with director Anne Bogart and the SITI company (NY); International Choreographer's Residency (ADF 2003), American Dance Festival (ADF); Faculty (ADF 2004); Emerging choreographer series (Joyce Foundation, NY 2003). As an educator, Preeti’s ground-breaking educational website, Dancing for the Gods has been developed to build a cultural bridge through creative Indian dance and used in NYC Public Schools. Preeti holds a Master's in Dance Studies from Laban Centre London and is a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York. [www.threshdance.org] *META – Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards |
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| Satish Kolluri, Chair & Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Pace University | |
 Dr. Satish Kolluri is Chair and Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Pace University. His teaching and research interests center on Indian and Hong Kong cinema, Secularism and Religion, and Parenting and Education. |
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