Ease
Breath
Pressing air
Practice of being present
Melty
Embracing my body’s dance
Rest
Patience
Improvisation
Dense
Rhythm
expanding beyond the slow
Releasing tension from the body
research questions
Tools
I just keep making confusing work
questions and explorations
Joy
I’m still finding my own language
fast, slow, frantically
HELLO!!
I am an experimental dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and a dance scholar developing my artistic practice and research between Los Angeles, Austin, and India. As a PhD Candidate at the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA, I investigate the relationship between somatic awareness, corporeal resistance, caste privilege and access in Indian contemporary dance. Trained as a jazz and postmodern dancer in Delhi, India, I have performed extensively across India, China, Scotland, and the States. I am interested in bridging the gap between dance scholarship and practice.
As the Editorial Fellow at Conversation Across the field of Dance Studies (2021-2023), I am actively learning strategies to devise decolonial and anti-racist methodologies in dance research. As an artist, I have led movement workshops that explore notions of privilege and marginality and shared material histories and presence, beyond the human. I have been a resident-performer at Gati Dance Forum (GSDR; New Delhi), Maya Dance Theatre (Singapore), and Crashbox, Rude Mechs (Austin). My dance film, Engage, explores the experience of submerging the body through open, closed, and virtual spaces. Engage (2021) has been officially selected in New Wave Short Film Festival at Munich (Finalist), New York Tri-State International Film Festival, and Tanzhoi Fringe Market (Italy). Engage 2.0 was awarded the “Best Dance Film” in Seoul International Short Film Festival. My other recent collaborations include performances with Early Era Collective (Austin), interdisciplinary artist Julie Tolentino, and choreographers Milka Djordjevich and Ligia Lewis (Los Angeles), Mandeep Raikhy (New Delhi), and Preethi Athreya (Chennai).
Sanchita Sharma 