Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies is a bharatanatyam, experimental movement, and live music production that explores the labor and lived experiences of South Asian immigrant women in the United States. It is inspired by the oral histories of Indian nurses who arrived as a result of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Choreographer Nadhi Thekkek, and her collaborators explore the heavy and enduring work of immigrant women and the worlds they traverse. They ask, who puts a price on this labor? What is the cost of opportunity? 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 six dancers with a live original score by Roopa Mahadevan, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, and others. Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies is created and produced by Nava Dance Theatre.

Production, residency, and presentation of Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.