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Dance Festival Committee
Aroon Shivdasani Artistic & Executive Director, IAAC
Rashi Verma  Dance Director, IAAC
Rajika Puri, Curator
Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Curator
Parul Shah, Curator
Vasanti Mirchandani Hospitality Director
Ramneek Kang Program Associate
Thomas Kelso Accountant
Jonathan Hollander Artistic Director, Battery Dance Company
Sunil Kothari, Advisor
 
Curators
Rajika Puri, Curator
Rajika PuriRajika Puritrained in Bharatanatyam and Odissi, and performed internationally in solo recitals, including a command performance for the President of Mexico. Currently, she focuses on developing different kinds of danced stories in which she sings, chants and narrates texts - in English and in Sanskrit - as she dances. (cf her "Ted India" INK talk on 'The Importance of Myth").

Major productions: Union Severed (Asia Society, '05), Conversations with Shiva, (Joyce SoHo,'07), Devimalika (Duke @ 42nd St, '08), Tapasya (Joyce SoHo, '09). Her latest work is an hour-long retelling of the life of 'Helen of Troy': ELENI of SPARTA in which she sings in ancient Greek (Epic Women Festival, Chennai & Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi and on tour in Malaysia).

An MA in the 'Anthropology of Movement' (NYU), Rajika writes, lectures, and gives workshops on Indian dance and theater, including onstage pre-performance talks for Indian dance shows (World Music Institute @ NYU Skirball, Cleveland Museum of Art). She also co-curates World Music Institute's Dancing the Gods festival of Indian dance, & advises several NY dance presenters.

Upcoming: An evening of danced stories from Indian myth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Curator
Uttara Asha CoorlawalaUttara Asha Coorlawala teaches dance courses at Barnard College/Columbia University, and at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School Professional Program. Earlier, her solo show brought modern dance, Bharatanatyam and yoga, to stages of India, Europe, East Europe, Japan and the United States as she represented both the USA and India as a cultural representative. She served as a Performing Arts advisor to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the National Center of Performing Arts, Mumbai, and greatly enjoys the challenges and social exchanges of co-curating the Erasing Borders Dance Festival, New York City. Uttara has served on various global dance research (CORD) and educational (International Baccalaureate or IB) committees. Her articles have been published in Discourses in Dance, Dance Research Journal and anthologies. Recently awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi ward for pioneering choreography, she is even more invested in the ongoing culture wars around global re-flows of body knowledges.

Parul Shah, Curator
Parul ShahParul Shahis an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer whose work is expanding the classical medium beyond cultural boundaries. With a dedication to excellence, Shah preserves the form’s aesthetic integrity while developing a unique and powerful vocabulary.

Behind Shah’s work is decades of rigorous Kathak training under the world-renowned guru and choreographer, Padmashree Kumudini Lakhia. Parul’s repertoire illustrates the soulfulness of the Kathak form while establishing new ways of movement drawn from the classical style. Her work includes traditional solo pieces alongside compelling contemporary group choreographies.

Shah’s New York studio is home to both the parul shah dance company and her training facility. She has presented her solo and group works at major venues around the world, including City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Jacobs Pillow and at the Japan Forum Foundation in Japan. She has collaborated on numerous international projects and presented in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Sunil Kothari, Advisor
 

  
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