Off Season Chats: Brinda Guha on Building Futures
Our last Off Season Chat is a 2-part conversation with Brinda Guha, a NYC-based multifaceted dancer and choreographer who has trained in a variety of styles including: Kathak, Manipuri, Yorchhā, Flamenco, and Contemporary. Last week, Brinda reflected on her artistic journey, and ways to build a dance community responsibly, and the future of South Asian dance at large. This week, she elaborates on the dance community, and how we can build on the wisdom of the previous generations to nurture and hold space for the needs of today and tomorrow.
Off Season Chats is a new series in which we have intimate conversations with dancers who are forging new paths in their artistic, personal, and professional lives. Our special guests are accomplished artists whose works span across many genres of South Asian dance including: Kathak, Kandyan, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, Odissi, and much more.
About Brinda Guha
Brinda Guha identifies as a non-disabled, caste-privileged, cisgender and queer South-Asian American, and is a trained Kathak dancer for over 20 years. During training and performing for years in the Kathak (Malabika Guha) & Manipuri (Kalavati + Bimbavati Devi) dance disciplines, as well as Flamenco (Carmen de las Cuevas; Dionisia Garcia) and Contemporary Fusion vocabularies, she co-founded Kalamandir Dance Company in 2010 based in the vocabulary of #ContemporaryIndian. She’s choreographed for many national stages, the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden, and self-produced original feature-length dance productions which earned her artist residencies at Dixon Place (2018) and Dancewave (2019) to continue to develop work. Now, she is represented by CESD Talent Agency and is pursuing artistic direction, performance and arts education. She trains in Kathak, Manipuri, Yorchhā (est. Ananya Chatterjee), and Contemporary.
Her dream of having art meet activism was realized when she created WISE FRUIT NYC, a seasonal live arts installment (est 2017) dedicated to the feminine divine and honoring select women-led organizations. For her day job, she works as the Symposium Coordinator for dance service organization based in the values of justice, equity & inclusion: Dance/NYC.
Dive Deeper
Ananya Chatterjea's Yorchha™ movement practice (with video clip)
Nrithya Pillai: "Cycles of Cultural Violence within Performance and Scholarship of Bharatanatyam." The News Minute. 21 June 2022.
Janete Silva's website
Soles of Duende at Jacob's Pillow on August 5, 2022
Credits
Today’s episode of Off Season Chats would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of our amazing listeners and the following people:
We Edit Podcasts for audio engineering
Sangeetha Kowsik for graphic design of our logo
Wesley Beeks & Bertel King, Jr.
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Off Season Chats is an Off The Beat production.