“Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies evoked the tensions and experiences of women and immigrants coming to the U.S. Nava Dance Theatre showed that together we are stronger, inclusive of the nuances and contradictions that folks are asked to hold in their bodies and experiences. ”
Oct 28-31, 2024
Residency at UMass Amherst
San Francisco-based Nava Dance Theatre comes to UMass as part of the Fine Arts Center’s Reimagine Residencies program. The company will spend a week on campus in production and engaging with students. The residency culminates in a public performance and question-and-answer session.
“Nava Dance Theatre has gracefully married tradition with modernity, allowing for the exploration of modern themes to be appreciated across cultural divides.”
Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies uses bharatanatyam and experimental movement to examine the labor of South Asian immigrant women who came to the US after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Inspired by the oral histories of Indian nurses who immigrated to the US due to labor shortages, choreographer Nadhi Thekkek, and her collaborators explore the heavy and enduring work of brown women and the worlds they traverse between. They ask, who puts a price on this labor? What is the cost of opportunity? Who gets to decide how foreign we are? Through community interviews, historical texts, and poetry, Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies negotiates these questions and examines what it means to belong in America.
Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies is an ensemble work of 6 dancers with a live original score by Roopa Mahadevan, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, and others. Rogue Gestures is created and produced by Nava Dance Theatre.
For bookings contact Purna Venugopalan, purna@navadance.org.
This work is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Grant, New Music USA, the East Bay Community Foundation Fund for Artists, MAP Fund, Zellerbach Family Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Cultural Innovation. Earlier iterations of the work were funded by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and commissioned by World Arts West.
“In traditional bharatanatyam, the mythological stories are told in a fantastical way, which I love. And I thought how amazing would it be if our real-life stories were mythical, too? The story of a woman crossing an ocean to care for people, as a nurse, and also support their family. Who are the villains in the story? It’s not just a god or goddess anymore; it’s actually our mothers and grandmothers and aunties. How amazing is it that that story is actually real, and it’s about our elders?”
Credits
Artistic Director/Choreographer | Nadhi Thekkek
Music Directors | Roopa Mahadevan and Kalaisan Kalaichelvan
Creative Co-Investigators/Dramaturgy | Kamala Devam, Shruti Abhishek
Dancer Collaborators | Nadhi Thekkek, Shruti Abhishek, Lalli Venkat, Janani Muthaiya, Abirami Murugappan, Shelley Garg
Musician Collaborators | Roopa Mahadevan, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, Aarti Shankar, Umesh Venkatesan, Aditya Iswara, Matt Small, Paul Arslanian (Amherst), Andrew Shantz (NYC)
Rehearsal Directors | Shruti Abhishek, Kamala Devam
Lighting Design | Richard Board
Programs Manager and Point of Contact | Purna Venugopalan
Additional Compositions | Thampy Antony Thekkek, GS Rajan, Sruti Sarathy
Past Guest Artists, Thought Partners, and Collaborators | Sindhu Natarajan, Malavika Kumar Walia, Preethi Ramaprasad, Maya Rau-Murthy, Conal Sathi, Randee Paufve, Vaibhav Arekhar, Anjana Rajan, Aarthi Ramesh, Rasika Kumar, Surabhi Bharadwaj
Original Company Cast | Nadhi Thekkek, Shruti Abhishek, Lalli Venkat, Shelley Garg, Aishwarya Subramanian, Priyanka Raghuraman, Janani Muthaiya
Promotional Photos | Jyotsna Bhamidipati, Purna Venugopalan
Show Photos | Rob Sweeney, Stephen Texeira Photography
Video | David Gaylord - Too Sour Films
Title Logo | Vic Pena
