EnGendered Festival 2008

Full slate of performances announced for EnGendered –
multi-disciplinary arts festival exploring gender, sexuality and religion in South Asia

ENGENDERED HITS NYC’S LINCOLN CENTER APRIL 18-20, 2008
Highlights include performances by feminist dancer/activist Mallika Sarabhai, Aditi Mangaldas, Astad Deboo, transgender performance in the style of ‘Stri-Vesham’, Sufi Music Concert with Zila Khan, and all male Odissi temple dance group.

NEW YORK, NY – March 27, 2008 – Nayikas today announced a packed schedule of performances to be presented as part of EnGendered, a multi-disciplinary arts festival that provides a provocative look at the complex realities of gender and sexuality at the intersection of ritual and religion in modern South Asia, planned for various venues at Lincoln Center, April 18-20, 2008.

EnGendered is an unprecedented experience that brings together performance, dance, theatre, film, and the visual arts to raise awareness, break silences, publicly dialogue and impact perceptions around issues of gender identities, stereotyping, bias and sexual choice and how those issues relate to human rights, health rights, and women's rights.

Festival Director and Nayikas Artistic Director Myna Mukherjee says, ‘EnGendered brings together many different levels of conversations that are part of new languages emerging around gender and sexuality both in South Asia and the diaspora. This is a critically needed conversation, especially in art, ritual and religion, which remain spaces largely unexamined from this lens. I am thrilled to be able to celebrate the lives and struggles of these prolific performers -- their work is pushing the boundaries of how we understand gender and sexual diversity within communities of faith like Hinduism and Islam. ”

The performances have been arranged thematically into three evening showcases. A full list of artists scheduled to appear along with venue information for each day is included below. For more information on the entire festival and to purchase tickets, visit www.nayikas.org/Engendered.

LingaSarita ~ Rivers of Gender Exploring gender constructions and transgressions through Neo/Classical performances featuring Rudrakshya, Navarasa, Parul Shah & Dancers, Astad Deboo, Sudarshan Belsare, Dakshina

Darmiyaan ~ Between the Lines – Exploring roles, reversals, contradictions, stereotypes and choice. Performance concert featuring Mallika Sarabhai, Sudarshan Belsare, Rajika Puri, Dakshina, Navarasa, Nayikas featuring Prachi Dalal, Sharmili Khan and thespian Tillotama Shome.

Visaal ~ Coming Together – Celebrating freedom, choice and faith through Sufi traditions. Dance & Music concert featuring Zila Khan, Aditi Mangaldas, Fareed Ayaz Qawwal Ensemble.

Rudrakshya, the first all male dance ensemble, performing Odissi, a classical dance style with roots in temple dance, traditionally only danced by women.
Soloist Astad Deboo, India’s most distinctive and honored modern dancer whose dynamic and athletic work has been featured in collaborations with international companies like Pina Bausch.
Mallika Sarabhai – one of India’s leading choreographers and dancers, and a well known activist for societal education and women’s empowerment. Also known for her role of Draupadi in Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata
Aditi Mangaldas – an acclaimed and dynamic solo dancer/choreographer whose work pushes traditional Kathak towards modern horizons and infuses it with a yoga spine.
‘StriVesham’ or trans-gendered performance style from South India by Sudarshan Belasare, and choreographed by Hari Krishnan of the InDance Foundation in Canada, exploring the eroticism and sensuality of the Devadasi temple dancers.
Aparna Sindhoor’s Navarasa Dance Co. that will perform work based on indigineous theater techniques and the South Indian marshal art form Kallaripayattu;
DC-based Dakshina Dance Theatre Company led by choreographer Daniel Phoenix Singh who will use a syncretic blend of classical Bharatanatyam and modern dance to explore queer themes.
Parul Shah & Co. one of the most acclaimed and dynamic Kathak dance companies in the diaspora.
Rajika Puri – an acclaimed soloist in Bharata Natyam and Odissi traditions, who will perform excerpts of her recent production ‘DeviMallika’: A Garland of Goddesses.
Sarah Hussein, a spoken word artist who engages the construction of “Muslim” identity in today’s militarized culture.
Nayikas Dance Co. whose work explores gender transgressions through the myth and narrative of female divinity in Hinduism. For the festival they have also commissioned ‘Veiled/Unveiled’ a dance and spoken word piece conceived to explore the ambiguity and contradictions of ‘pardah’ in the South Asian context, featuring guest dancers Prachi Dalal & Sharmili Khan and thespian Tillotama Shome

EnGendered has been made possible by esteemed partner Indo American Arts Council. Major sponsors for the festival include Religare Arts Initiative, Intercultural Interdisciplinary Initiatives Fund, India Abroad, and Desiclub.com.

ABOUT NAYIKAS: Nayikas, a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, is New York’s first resident classical Indian Odissi dance theater company. Nayikas is both a presenting and performing company. It draws from feminist iconography present in the footnotes of Indian mythology, history and literature while preserving the essential spiritual core of the dance form. The company is committed to finding new venues and the best professional opportunities for the dedicated, talented and socially conscious South Asian artist. Inspired performances, high production values and outstanding performances are the aim of Nayikas presentations. Established in 2000, Nayikas performance and production credits include sold out shows at Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center,, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum of the Arts, Indian Consulate of New York, Rubin Museum, The MET, Chashama Theatre and Yale University.



ALL-FESTIVAL PASS for $260, includes entry to all events, available until APRIL 4, 2008. Reservations can be made by calling (917) 582-4730 or by clicking here.