ANANYA DANCE THEATRE

Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) is a company of women artists of color, diverse in age, race, nationality, and sexual orientation, dancing at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice. Our mission is to create and stage original works inspired by the lives and work of women all around the world, and to create artistic ways to understand and honor their struggle and resistance around particular issues. We believe that the search for excellence in artistry forges pathways to galvanize strong communities and generate forces of strength, beauty, and social justice.

Guided by our mission and values, ADT seeks to create and stage original works and powerful images inspired by the lives and work of women. ADT presents contemporary Asian dance performances that unite deconstructions of South Asian classical dance and movement with street theater conventions articulated by a diverse group of dancers. Every performance project is built around social justice themes and uses an integrated artistic process to engage communities and generate forces of justice, healing, and beauty. Our artistic programming includes: a) training in an Asian movement aesthetic, b) performance opportunities which give voice to issues affecting communities of color , c) workshops exploring social justice issues concerning Asian American/ Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and women of color, and d) community outreach to youth of color through in-school workshops and to the broader community through interactive dialogues.

ADT has a continuous history of creating and producing large-scale pieces, running to full houses. Our 2001 production, A Wife’s Letter, our first project inviting community members into the creative process, ran to sold-out houses. Our 2003 project, Bandh, in which first-time dancers trained by Chatterjea worked alongside professionally trained artists and collaborators of international repute was awarded the Cowles’ People’s Choice Award. Chatterjea was named “Best Choreographer of the Year” by the City Pages for Duurbaar (2006). Working in collaboration with ADT has just completed a trilogy of works (2006-2009) exploring issues of environmental injustice in global communities of color. This year we have launched a quartet of works (2010-2014) exploring the ways in which women in global communities of color experience and resist violence. In order to mobilize a broad-based artistic response to gendered violence, we have created an “Allies” program, through which we invite 2-3 white dancers and activists to collaborate with us.