Nava Dance Theatre

Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies is a dance and live music production exploring the agency of South Asian women who immigrated to the U.S. following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. We use bharatanatyam, experimental movement, and different musical genres to question the meaning of assimilation in America. This inquiry sources community interviews, historical texts, and poetry to explore the intersections of labor, agency, and belonging in our South Asian ancestry. Performances include choreography by Nadhi Thekkek with music direction by Kalaisan Kalaichelvan and Roopa Mahadevan. Thekkek and collaborators will collect oral histories, building the source material from her community. Through these interviews they examine how these women challenged conventional gender roles and explore how their lived experiences have informed hyphenated identities today.  

Caretakers of Land/Land Acknowledgement: We rehearse, live, and gather in Yelamu, the land of Chochenyo and Ramaytush speaking Ohlone people. 

Estimated Artist Fee: $20,000 for one performance, not including airfare and lodging.