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Reviews |
Erasing Borders: Passport to Contemporary Indian Art Feb-June 2008 |
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Sudarshan Belsare |
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Sudarshan Belsare is a Boston-based dancer, choreographer, actor, visual artist and art-museum educator and belongs to a generation of young dancers in the South Asian Diaspora in North America who have created a unique niche for themselves in the realm of classical Indian arts, while expanding their repertoire in the contemporary idiom. Formally trained in Bharatanatyam by Shankar Hombal and Padmashri Geeta Chandran, Belsare has been subsequently working on creating choreography that addresses gender, gender-identity and sexuality.
As a Trans performer, Belsare is perpetuating the classical tradition of Stri-Vesham (Female Impersonation) where the target gender identity of a woman’s psyche and body is the medium to communicate Nayaki Bhava (the voice of the female protagonist) in the traditional Bharatanatyam repertoire.
Belsare holds a Master’s degree in Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston MA. Currently, as a museum educator at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA, Belsare has developed unique interpretive strategies for the contemporary and traditional art collection from India through dance expression that echoes the imagery in painting and sculptures from the 15th to the 21st century. Belsare is particularly interested in keeping the work bold, edgy and full of risks and remains committed towards extending critical thought in the understanding and treatment of traditional Bharatanatyam in North America.
Belsare is also a recipient of the Government of India scholarship for advanced study of Bharatanatyam and was recently nominated under the Best Dancer category for the Dora Mavor Moore Award by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, Canada. Belsare is so far the only Indian performer featured on Boston’s Oral History Project’s initiative QueerEast.com.Belsare’s work has been featured at the Lincoln Center (NYC), CanAsian International Dance Festival (Toronto), Emerson College (Boston), Boston University, Massachusetts College of Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Worcester Art Museum, Tufts University (MA), Harvard University (MA), Wesleyan University (CT), The New School (NYC), Wellesley College (MA), The Boston Center for the Arts, MFA (Boston), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Peabody Essex Museum (MA) , The University of Wyoming (Laramie) and The University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth) to name a few.
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| “…a .tour de force… a true act of transcendence and religious immersion.” |
The New York Times
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“…a consummate dancer, quick-footed and exact, with clean lines and rhythmic alacrity…”
“…Belsare, at full tilt, is as mesmerizing as staring into the heart of a fire…” |
The Dance Current Magazine
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| “…The dancer’s incredible presence exudes pride and power…” |
Le MONDO
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| “Belsare avoids high camp in a dance that presents the gamut of female images…” |
| The Toronto Star |
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