” Choreographies of Resistance: Dancing Ecosystems”– Ananya Chatterjea, Professor of Dance, University of Minnesota
Read more about Dr. Chatterjea’s work here.
Abstract
In this talk, I will trace the intimate relationship between embodied and environmental sustainability as I have come to understand it in my creative research. What might be some specific methodologies of choreographing eco-feminist stories from the perspective of women artists of color? I will refer to some of my recent choreographic works in order to identify the complex conceptual frames and staging strategies that I have had to work with in order to offer critical and nuanced images of the entanglements of bodies of women of color, the environment, and questions of equity.
Bio
Ananya Chatterjea is a choreographer, dancer, and thinker whose work brings together Contemporary Indian dance, social justice choreography, and a philosophy of #occupydance. She is Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre (www.ananyadancetheatre.org), a Twin Cities-based professional dance company of women artists of color. The company’s work, described as “people powered dances of transformation,” includes concert performances and participatory performances in non-traditional spaces, where audiences become co-creators of movement explorations with the dancers. Ananya is the recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Choreography Fellowship, a 2012 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, and a 2016 Joyce Award (with The O’Shaughnessy Theater). Ananya is currently writing her second book, Heat, contestations in line, about re-framing understandings of Contemporary Dance from the perspective of dance-makers from a location in the global south. Ananya recently received the Sage Outstanding Dance Educator Award (2015) and an NPN Creation Fund Award (2016) and the National Dance Project Production Grant (2017) for Shyamali (2017), her most recent work about women and dissent.
Wendy Wischer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History. In affiliating with the GCSC, Wischer said, "Through my research I am seeking a wide range of data that I can use to creatively link nature with technology, science with mythology and personal identity with universal connections while addressing our current environmental crisis in hopes of finding impactful ways to connect people more deeply with the environments they live in."