Platform 15 is amongst the biennial’s initiatives to provide avenues for emerging choreographers from the South Asia region. In this edition, as we have in the past, we bring to you the independent and exciting voices from across the South Asia region. Platform 15 has been received with an overwhelming response in its last three editions, from the audiences, dance-makers and artists, and the arts community in general. It has been heartening to see that the performances at the Platform were appreciated and invited by various national and international performing arts festivals, strengthening the Biennial’s resolve to keep the programme going.
Monday, Feb 9 and Tuesday Feb 10, 3 pm onwards
Alliance Française de Bangalore
Look out for
MIRRA ARUN
India
Bangalore-based Mirra Arun has been engaged in movement arts since 2002, starting her career with the Attakkalari Centre For Movement Arts. She has been trained in contemporary dance techniques, kalaripayattu, bharathanatyam and yoga, and is a certified instructor from a1000yoga. She has also held movement workshops and performed in international dance festivals in Europe and Asia.
She works extensively in dance in education and is passionate about working with children, across ages and backgrounds. She is interested in creating experimental work, street performances and finds community projects exciting.
Preethi Athreya
India
Preethi Athreya is a Chennai-based contemporary dancer, choreographer and writer. She trained in bharatanatyam and then went on do to a postgraduate degree at the Laban Centre, London. Since 1999, she has worked with choreographer Padmini Chettur, and has also created several solo works, such as Light Doesn’t Have Arms to Carry Us (2013) and most recently Across, not Over (2014). Her constant dialogue with existing form and content and the possibilities of reframing them marks her approach. Her collaborator for Platform 15 is dancer, choreographer and scholar Vikram Iyengar, whose long relationship with kathak inspired their collaboration.
RAHUL GOSWAMI India
Rahul Goswami is an experimental contemporary dancer and choreographer based in New Delhi. He has been juggling between the roles of a performer, therapist, choreographer and researcher in a variety of dance forms for the last nine years. In the short span of his career, he has had the opportunity to work with a selection of visionary artists on several grand-scale projects.
Over the last six years, he has been engaged with a number of physical techniques and such as flying low/passing through, the release technique, experiential anatomy and choreography, Forsythe improvisation technologies, contact improvisation and choreography composition.
REVANTA SARABHAI India
Revanta Sarabhai is an independent performer, choreographer, multimedia designer and filmmaker from Ahemdabad. Having made his solo Indian classical dance debut at age of eight, he has been performing professionally and touring internationally with the Darpana Performance Group since 1999. Trained in a variety of folk, contemporary and martial arts forms from India and across the world, he started experimenting with choreography at age 14, and has created work that has been showcased at several prestigious venues and festivals across Asia, Europe, and North America. Having graduated with an MA in Performance & Creative Research at the Roehampton University in 2011, he currently lives and works between London, Europe and India.
SHILPIKA BORDOLOI India
Shilpika Bordoloi began her dance training from the age of three in Jorhat, Assam, in in the classical dance form of Manipuri under Guru Rathindra Sinha and later Padmashree Darshana Jhaveri. She then studied bharatanatyam under Padmashree Leela Samson, and worked with the dance company Spandan for a year. She has also learnt a variety of martial art forms such as taijiquan, and and trained in instruments like the digeridoo and the Iranian Daf. She also has a Master’s Degree in English Literature.
She has engaged with voice and theatre movement and worked as a choreographer and theatre artist across spectrum of genres, to develop her own vocabulary of physical theatre. Currently, Shlipika is based out of Assam, travelling down the Bramhaputra river and researching her multimedia project Katha Yatra besides being visiting faculty at the National School of Drama and the State Institute of Film and Television.
Surjit Nongmeikapam
India
Surjit Nongmeikapam a.k.a Bonbon is a contemporary dancer and choreographer from Manipur. He did his BA in Choreography from the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography and has worked as a dancer with Natya Stem Dance Company and Natya Maya in Bangalore. He has also trained in kathak, kalarippayattu, Manipuri, thang-ta and contemporary dance, and continues to learn different movement styles from different gurus and mentors.
He has trained with Sanved, Kolkata in movement therapy and works as a consulting movement therapist with Human to Humane Transcultural Centre for Torture and Trauma, Manipur.
Surjit was the winner of the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) 2014.
VENURI PERERA Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan performer and choreographer Venuri Perera trained in Kandyan dance under Vajira and Upeka Chitrasena, and was a member of the Chitrasena Vajira Dance Company for 13 years. She holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology and a Post Graduate Certificate in Dance in the Community from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance London, She was awarded the Michelle Simone prize for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Choreography’ for her solo Abhinishkramanaya. V
Venuri has collaborated in dance, theatre, live art, multimedia, film, therapeutic movement and mixed-abled dance projects, and shown her short works in festivals and symposia across Europe, South Asia and East Asia. She is also a member of the Floating Space Theatre Company in Colombo.
As an artist, she engages with the contemporary context in her country, questioning the status quo.
