Ananya Chatterjea
Ananya: based on the Bengali na·anya , "like whom there is no other". Ananya Dance Theatre (formerly Women In Motion ) is a company of women artists of color, diverse in age, race, nationality, and sexual orientation, but uniformly committed to artistic excellence and passionate articulation of our dreams, hopes, and desires.
Ananya Dance Theatre is known for its blending of excellent artistry and high production values with community-building and social change work. Uniquely, it is also noted for seamless blending together the sculpturesque forms, strong footwork, and emotional articulation of the Odissi classical style, the purity of line and breath release of yoga, the efficiency and awareness of the power within human body of Indian martial arts traditions such as Kalarippayattu, the abstract theatrical potential of Indian ritual practices, and the urgent energy of street theater.
Drawing from the passion of women's movements world-wide toward social justice, the choreographic trend of the company's work involves dancing stories of ordinary lives to invoke a broader commentary about social justice and philosophy.
Witnessing the political theater created by directors like Badal Sircar and Safdar Hashmi, and by organizations such as the Indian People's Theatre Association and Stree Shakti Sanghatana (a grassroots women's organization), who created and performed political theatre in public forums as consciousness-raising modes, Artistic Director Chatterjea was inspired to search for a dance language that could also articulate a critique.
These experiences and the search for a contemporary Indian movement aesthetic started her off on her creative journey that lead to the establishment of Ananya Dance Theatre .The mission is to create and stage original works and powerful images inspired by the lives and work of women all around the world. Based on contemporary interpretations of the Odissi dance form, aesthetic traditions of Bengal, and practices of street theater created by women's groups, the company seeks to reach and engage diverse peoples.
Ananya Dance Theatre works with the belief that the search for excellence in artistry forges pathways to galvanize strong communities and generate forces of strength and beauty. With every project we seek to challenge ourselves in terms of artistry, execution, and production values and ultimately to question the widely-held assumption about the lack of artistic excellence in community-based artistic projects.
Ananya Chatterjea, dancer, choreographer, dance scholar, and dance educator, envisions her work in the field of dance as a “call to action” with a particular focus on women artists of color. She is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Theater Arts and Dance and Director of Dance in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She is also the Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, a dance company of women artists of color who believe in the powerful intersection of artistic excellence and social justice (www.ananyadancetheatre.org). Trained initially in Indian classical and folk dance traditions, she became a well-known exponent of the Odissi style of classical dance at a young age. However, disillusioned with the commercialization that had become attendant upon Indian classical dance forms, and vitally interested in the creation of a contemporary Indian dance mode, Ananya began her explorations of form and theme in dance in the 1980’s. But, it is through her study of street theater and feminist praxis across the world that she arrived at her fierce commitment to the immediate relationship between bodily artistic practices and social justice movements. Ananya believes in the integral interconnectedness of her creative and scholarly research. Her book, Butting out! Reading cultural politics in the work of Chandralekha and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2004. At the University of MN, she teaches courses on the cultural politics of dance, the bodily production of knowledge, dance historiographies, and the choreographies of social justice art projects.
Ananya is the proud recipient of grants from prestigious organizations such as the Asian Arts Initiative, McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, as well as a prestigious artist fellowship from the Bush Foundation. In 2001, she was featured as an “Artist of the Year” in the City Pages, and in 2005, she was named a “Changemaker” by the Women’s Press in Minnesota. She is also the proud recipient of awards from the BIHA (Black Indian Hispanic Asian) Women In Action organization and from the MN Women’s Political Caucus, and recently the 21 leaders for the 21st Century Award from Women’s E-News (http://www.womensenews.org/21leaders2007.cfm), a national women-centered news organization, for her work weaving together community-building and artistic excellence and creating a space for women’s voices through artistic practices. She was recently honored by the Josie Johnson Social Justice and Human Rights Award at the University of Minnesota.
Recent performances include Erasing Borders Festival (New York, 2008), Bates Dance Festival (Maine, 2008); New World Theater (Amherst, 2007); Museum Theater (Singapore, 2007); Conwell Theater (Philadelphia, 2007); Contemporary Asian Dance Festival (Osaka, 2006); Indonesian Dance Festival (Jakarta, 2006); Women Artists for Peace Festival (Delhi, 2004); Harborfront Theater (Toronto, Cananda, 2003, 2004); Habitat Center (Delhi, India, 2003); National Center for Performing Arts (Bombay, India, 2003); Philippines Cultural Center (Manila, Philippines, 2003) Theaterlabor (Bielefeld, Germany, 2002); Under the Stars Festival (Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, 2002); and Nehru Center (London, UK, 2002). She has been artist-in-residence at Univ. of Surrey (2005), Performing Arts School (Singapore, 2003), and MIT’s Dept. of Theater and Dance (2001, 2002). She was selected to be a Ford Foundation Delegate to Delhi (2002) and an artist in a creativity pilot project initiated by the UK Arts Council (2001).
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