PERFORMANCES: Nava Dance Theatre and the Oakland Ballet Company
May
22
to Jun 1

PERFORMANCES: Nava Dance Theatre and the Oakland Ballet Company

May 22, 28, 30, 31 and two shows on June 1.

Nadhi Thekkek collaborates with Graham Lustig, Artistic Director of the Oakland Ballet to create work that appeals to children and families, and includes live music arrangement by Ananya Ashok. Along with Nadhi, guest dancers include Surabhi Bharadwaj and Ganesh Vasudeva and company dancer Shelley Garg.

This year Nava Dance Theatre also presents a bharatanatyam work called Vastra, inspired by the popular folk tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes in collaboration with Manasa Suresh, Rohan Krishnamurthy, Divya Ramachandram, and Nyan Narasimhan. This work is created by Nadhi Thekkek and Shruti Abhishek with Nava dancer collaborators, Vertika Srivastava, Shelley Garg, Lalli Venkat, and Aishwarya Subramanian.

Nadhi also performs in Lustig’s production Jangala, as Messua, Mowgli’s human mother.

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Drive East NYC: Shedding Light by Nadhi Thekkek, Rasika Kumar, and Sahasra Sambamoorthi
Aug
6
7:00 PM19:00

Drive East NYC: Shedding Light by Nadhi Thekkek, Rasika Kumar, and Sahasra Sambamoorthi

Nadhi Thekkek collaborates with Rasika Kumar (Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose) and Sahasra Sahi Sambamoorthi (Navatman Dance, NYC) as they explore the normal female life and its boiling points. This production is inspired by the #metoo movement and its pervasiveness.

Rasika, Nadhi, and Sahi have been developing this work over the last 2 years and are excited to bring you its first edition. Bay Area native Roopa Mahadevan has composed the music and several local musicians join her on the stellar orchestra.

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Inherited Bodies presented by Hope Mohr Dance and SFMOMA
Sep
26
6:00 PM18:00

Inherited Bodies presented by Hope Mohr Dance and SFMOMA

HMD's Bridge Project and SFMOMA's Open Space present

INHERITED BODIES // How do movement artists in different traditions contend with, honor, and resist the past?

SEPT. 26TH | 6PM
@ The Women's Building (3543 18th St, SF)
FREE, RSVP required -----> https://www.artful.ly/store/events/17848

FEATURING
a series of lecture demonstrations by Sara Shelton Mann, Jarrel Phillips, Nadhi Thekkek, and Snowflake Towers

The featured artists will respond to the following questions through language and movement:

- How does history/the past operate in your work?
- Who or what are the giants in your tradition (whether forgotten or celebrated) and how do they figure in your work?
- How do you navigate between traditional and experimental forms in your work?

Following the four artists' presentations, there will be a group discussion, moderated by Claudia La Rocco, Director of Community Engagement and Editor-in-Chief, SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Space.

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Nava Dance Theatre at the Rotunda Dance Series in SF
Nov
8
12:00 PM12:00

Nava Dance Theatre at the Rotunda Dance Series in SF

Nava Dance Theatre performs November 8th for the Rotunda Dance Series.

The Rotunda Dance Series brings many of the Bay Area’s most celebrated dance companies to San Francisco City Hall for free monthly noon-time performances and is presented by Dancers’ Group and World Arts West in partnership with Grants for the Arts and SF City Hall.

Nadhi Thekkek is awarded the Mythili Kumar Emerging Artist Award.

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Shedding Light by Nadhi Thekkek, Rasika Kumar, and Sahasra Sambamoorthi
May
19
3:00 PM15:00

Shedding Light by Nadhi Thekkek, Rasika Kumar, and Sahasra Sambamoorthi

Nadhi Thekkek collaborates with Rasika Kumar (Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose) and Sahasra Sahi Sambamoorthi (Navatman Dance, NYC) as they explore the normal female life and its boiling points. This production is inspired by the #metoo movement and its pervasiveness.

Rasika, Nadhi, and Sahi have been developing this work over the last 2 years and are excited to bring you its first edition. Bay Area native Roopa Mahadevan has composed the music and several local musicians join her on the stellar orchestra.

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CounterPulse Gala: Innerspace
May
16
6:30 PM18:30

CounterPulse Gala: Innerspace

Nadhi Thekkek performs at CounterPulse Innerspace Gala!

CounterPulse is the Innerspace of the Bay Area arts constellation. We are a celestial community of futurists and galvanizers. We are the constellation of visionaries that invest in each other, to ensure our collective paths are starlight and far out.

Support CounterPulse by bidding at the silent auction, an intergalactic array of treats and experiences that sustain the mind and body for the galaxy ahead. Feast on a gourmet celestial dinner catered by Fogcutter. Get down with your fellow martians on the dance floor with free drinks all night.
Immerse yourself in radical performances and live art by your favorite artists. This party is for you, for all of us.

Come dressed as your favorite Innerspace creature from another galaxy!

Performances and live art by: Nadhi Thekkek/ Nava Dance Theater, Maurya Kerr/ tinypistol, Lxs Dxs (jose e. abad, Gabriel Christian, Felix Linck Sol Frenz, Stephanie Hewett, jubilee july, & randy reyes), Melissa Lewis, Brea Weinreb, Sammay Dizon / URBAN x INDIGENOUS, animals + giraffes (Claudia LaRocco and Phillip Greenlief), and more!

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PERFORMANCE: Broken Seeds/Taking Root
Mar
29
to Mar 31

PERFORMANCE: Broken Seeds/Taking Root

Exploring our shared struggle with displacement through dance and visual art

Created by Nadhi Thekkek and Rupy C. Tut, Broken Seeds (Still Grow)  is a bharatanatyam dance and visual art production inspired by the real-life stories from the 1947 Partition Archive and recent South Asian American history. This creative inquiry sources poetry, eyewitness accounts, and current events to understand the current political climate while reflecting on what it means to belong somewhere. This work includes original music by GS Rajan.

The show is titled “Broken Seeds Still Grow” as a tribute to stories of ancestors who have faced displacement either through Partition or immigration but continued to be resilient and grow wherever they found home. These stories of displacement are crucial to preserve, understand, and share; they give us a glimpse into our individual pasts, while helping us understand our collective future.

This creation of this work was supported by the East Bay Fund for Artists through the East Bay Community Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Dancers' Group CA$H Grants, and crowd funders. This project is fiscally-sponsored by CounterPulse.

For more info, box office, and press kit, visit Broken Seeds. 

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Broken Seeds Engagement: University Lecture Series
Mar
14
to Mar 25

Broken Seeds Engagement: University Lecture Series

University Lecture/Workshop Series
March 14, 2019 - San Francisco State University
March 20, 2019 - University of California, Berkeley

Nadhi Thekkek and Rupy C. Tut give talks at San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley on their research on South Asian contemporary histories and using art to process the current political climate.

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Varnam Salon 2.0
Jan
26
8:00 PM20:00

Varnam Salon 2.0

This salon series explores the power of the traditional solo bharatanatyam repertoire. By way of discussion, performance, and food, we learn about and explore what classical repertoire still gives us today.

Also, we just love varnams. The varnam is often the “main” piece in a solo bharatanatyam performance. It allows a dancer to go deep into content and explore his or her connection to the timeless characters in these pieces. It often lasts between 20-40 minutes, with some varnams by senior masters lasting over 50 minutes to packed halls.

This salon features Roopa Suresh, Vertika Srivastava, and Lalli Venkat.

Roopa will present a full varnam, while Vertika and Lalli will be presenting other pieces from the bharatanatyam solo repertoire.

Suggested donation: $15

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Nadhi Thekkek - Solo Performance with Live Music
Jan
13
2:00 PM14:00

Nadhi Thekkek - Solo Performance with Live Music

Join Navatman NYC for their first studio showing of 2019 featuring Nadhi Thekkek, artistic director of Nava Dance Theatre. Her fluid motions, sweet yet profound abhinaya and incredibly thought out work make her someone whose solo work can be quite entrancing. She will be presenting new choreographies alongside old ones. Guest musicians include senior composer/flautist GS Rajan, and wonderful musicians Akshaya Rajkumar (vocal), Bala Skandan (mridangam), and Sri Thina Subramaniam (nattuvangam.) Tickets are $20 online and $25 at the door.

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Merging
Dec
1
to Dec 2

Merging

ODC’s Pilot Program presents Merging, a cutting-edge amalgamation of world premiers by six Bay Area female choreographers. From definitive concepts such as the meaning of intelligence and the British India Partition, to abstract works investigating dreams, strength, and nature, these women contribute their voices and perspectives in an effort to find meaningful ways to reconcile both the past and present.

In her new work, Defining Intelligence, Alyssa Mitchel examines what it means to be intelligent. The work features five dancers and integrates the recorded interview responses of twenty-six Bay Area K-8 students, school teachers, principals and professors. Nadhi Thekkek presents Reminisce, a Bharatanatyam piece inspired by witness statements from the British India Partition of 1947. Molly Matutat premieres Residue, based on a reoccurring dream of unease. The work serves to unravel the source of the dream and find means of resolve while exploring our level of viewership when dreaming. multiple ways to feel invincible, a solo work by Charlotte Carmichael, investigates how the concept of reclaiming can physically manifest itself. Tanya Chianese’s new work, Daybreak, is inspired by the sun rising over the waking rainforest surrounding the Mayan ruins of Tikal, Guatemala and explores morning rituals. Fuerza, choreographed by Marlene Garcia coalesces strength and unpredictability through the use of explosive and subtle movement.

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