NCPA Mumbai celebrates dance diversity with global and Indian classical performances at Spectrum 2026

In Ānanda-Rasam, bliss is not approached as an abstraction; it is rendered visible, audible, and emotionally tangible. The choreographic vision arises from the belief that ānanda begins as an inner awakening. From this point, the movement vocabulary evolves gradually — from stillness into expansion, from introspective meditation into a shared celebration. The production interlaces nṛtta and abhinaya, allowing technique to transform into transcendence. Pure dance passages, shaped by geometry, rhythmic clarity, and mounting energy, generate a vibrant resonance within the body. Within this visual universe, I draw upon every technique of dance to embody release and surrender. The choreography strives for luminosity, inviting the audience into the emotional terrain rather than positioning them as distant admirers of virtuosity. What unfolds is an inner quest—a call to create anew through spontaneous flow, surrendering completely to the art form.

The evolution of Odissi today is one of the most compelling cultural journeys in the history of Indian classical arts. Rooted in temple ritual, sculpture and the aesthetics of the Nāṭyaśāstra, the form was revitalized in the twentieth century by seminal visionaries who reconstructed technique, repertoire, and pedagogy while preserving its spiritual core. What we witness now is not merely continuity but expansion with integrity. Odissi has moved from regional practice to international presence and is currently nurtured, performed, and studied in nearly 150 countries. This extraordinary geographic spread signals more than popularity; it reflects the universality of its grammar, its deeply human emotional vocabulary, and its ability to communicate transcendence across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

I have come to understand that artistic growth is sustained by unending curiosity. Tradition thrives not through preservation alone, but through clarity of purpose - when the artiste deeply understands why the art form exists and what it seeks to express. It is this balance - between rootedness and exploration - that continues to guide my work.

This is a story about villagers who are ardent Ram devotees. The village — Sitapur — is extremely remote, without access to TVs or cell phones. After finishing their daily chores, they gather in the temple to immerse themselves in Rambhakti. They keep the temple spotlessly clean and regularly beautify the place. They cater to the needs of poor devotees; they chant and dance Ram shlokas and bhajans. They always address Ram as Ramlalla, their adorable son. They live and breathe Ram and Ramayan. One of the devotees gets up and starts telling different stories from the Ramayana. True to Kathak tradition, the devotion of Ram and the incidents that occurred in Ram Katha inspire this narration. Here, the stage gets transformed into a warm temple, a devotional space. The space is like a sanctum sanctorum. What connects the dancers is the devotion to Ram and the incidences occurred in the Ram Katha.

Like all classical dance styles, Kathak originated in temples. But in its journey through the ages, it travelled to various spaces and environments, resulting in the gathering of many remarkable features. Kathak transformed at every stage, as it is a flexible and easily adaptable form. It got enriched in rhythm, space activation, and nuanced expression. All of this finds manifestation in the choreography of Ram-Lalla — and it is this that enables an age-old tale, performed repeatedly across time, to be presented with a fresh perspective even today.

BRICKS - Chorale for Bricks and Bodies is a collaborative work between music, architecture and dance. The subtitle is inspired by Bach’s chorales. It is a compositional technique he invented, where the horizontality of each musical line creates harmony vertically with the others. This has been a strong image that guided the work between the composer Violeta Cruz and me, as much on a musical point of view, as of a choreographic and symbolic side. The ever-moving images created on stage with the bricks have come into being after years of conversations between the architect and writer Lea Hobson and me, and a common tour in Brazil and Colombia with our first collaborative work in 2023. There I discovered the architecture of the Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona and its so called ‘poetry of the brick’. His constructions and vision about the city, its quality of housing, and the care of creating open collective spaces with the integration of the existent natural elements, made me question and observe more carefully what is built and how it is built. It reveals a lot about the reality of a place. The piece has evolved from those observations. It is not figurative and each single person is invited to do its own reading, taking all the sonic and visual elements into account. The dancing to me, happens on several levels, such as the bodies of course, but also the bodies with the bricks and the bricks themselves. BRICKS is an invitation to listen to the movements of bodies and bricks.

I, as a dance artist and creator, get fascinated with many types of movements, not only the ones seen on the studio but also the ones that are to be seen in the everyday life such as the flights of the birds, the traffic on the road, the flames of the fire, or the bricks on a wall... And then, as Pina Bausch, the famous German choreographer once said “it is not about how you move, but what moves you.” For me the emotion does not strictly come from human interactions but as well from human and non human interactions. Bricks are everywhere. They are made of earth, water and fire or heat. Those elements are fundamental to life. Living together is a challenge on many levels and sustaining a liveable environment for all as well. So if I need to bring an other art then dance, music or architecture to the table, maybe I would choose visual art, for its ability to let one contemplate and making sense of things by itself, not looking only at what is expressed but also how and from which perspective.