The Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program is a virtual program that funds and supports South Asian dance and movement artists from many different backgrounds, genres, and identities. Many of these artists are challenging the status quo, which often prevents us from witnessing certain stories or points of view.
This years public sharings takes place over two wednesdays! Each event will showcase four residents' work in progress followed by a QnA with the audience.
Please join us in supporting the residents and consider a small donation to help us fund the residency next year.
The exact schedule for the sharing will be out soon!
Day 1 Artist Bios:
Pandurang Sagbhor | Maharastra-Goa, India
Pandurang Sagbhor is a contemporary dance artist based in Maharashtra-Goa, India. Finding dance at 19 was his rebellious response to the monotonous education system and regressive social fabric he grew up in. While coming out as a young gay man, dance became his safe space to express himself. He acquired initial dance training in Delhi (2010-2017) while pursuing architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture. Starting with modern jazz, contemporary, and ballroom dance, it became another medium of expression for him and a new lens to examine the socio-political fabric surrounding him.
His interest in contemporary dance started to grow deep in 2017. He was awarded a scholarship by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation for Body Space Time residency at GATI Dance Forum, Delhi, in 2017, where he was exposed to the world of movement practice. He was awarded an exchange work-based scholarship for The Body and Performance Residency, Goa, in 2022 and The Play Practise Residency, Bangalore, in 2023. Recently he has been an artist in residency at the 9th edition of Art of Improvisation Residency, Goa, hosted by InContact Collective (November-December 2024).
With holistic research, he believes in mindful body practice to explore body-space politics, gender issues, and imposed social conditioning in Indian and global contexts. He investigates these subjects through the lens of power dynamics, inclusivity, identity, access, and authority.
Renuka | Berkley, USA
Renuka is a fat queer Indian-American multidisciplinary artist, performer, and community organizer born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Described as “optimistic” from a young age, her work is fueled by a radical belief in a future rooted in interdependence, love, and rest. Renuka’s creative practice began at age 4 with Bharatanatyam, where she performed both ensemble and solo pieces accompanied by live and pre-recorded music, until she paused to attend college. For six years, she explored other forms of creative expression, including singing, long-form essays, fashion, photography, and most recently, poetry. In 2023, she reintroduced dance into her life by joining Duniya Dance & Drum Company and began exploring her own voice as a choreographer. As an aspiring pleasure activist, she examines how somatic embodiment and radical vulnerability can sustain the difficult work of liberation by invoking connection through healing and joy. She debuted as a solo artist, performing both original writing and choreography, during Novalia Collective’s “this is my body” June 2024 cohort. Her creative process draws on her experiences with community organizing, storytelling, and yoga, as well as her ongoing learning of new dance forms, to craft narratives that challenge herself and her audience to dream of and take action toward a liberated future.
RuAfza | New York, USA
RuAfza is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, specializing in drag performance and visual arts. As an immigrant from India, their work explores themes of gender, immigration, and consumption, often utilizing technical forms such as lenticular imagery and immersive installations and shows.