Dancer and choreographer, Deepti Gupta, visits NYU Shanghai for an enlightening Kathak performance. Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers. Deepti Gupta is visiting IMA to explore how contemporary technologies might connect with this traditional art-form. Join us in room 808 for a fascinating and visually engaging performance.

Building bridges between India and Canada, Deepti Gupta is a dancer and choreographer of the elegant Kathak style of Indian dance. A disciple of Sri Munna Lal Shukla, renowned guru of the Lucknow Gharana (lineage), she has recently been training and working under the guidance of Kathak legend Pundit Birju Maharaj.

Deepti holds an MA in Dance from York University, Toronto and is a noted scholar, teacher and choreographer both in Canada and in India. Her creative work has been recognized by many awards including a Chalmers Award, National Arts Centre commissions and a choreographic residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Deepti’s choreographic work is at the cutting edge of contemporary South Asian dance and she has collaborated with a diverse range of international musicians, designers, and new media artists. Her work has been presented by Canada’s National Arts Centre, National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Dance Festival, Kalanidhi Fine Arts, Raga Mala of Canada, Banff Centre for the Arts, Tangente, Harbourfront Centre. Her work has also been presented internationally by Danspace Project & DTW, New York; Anila Sinha Foundation, International House, Chicago; Vasantotsav, Delhi; and the Panchatatva Festival Mumbai among others.

Deepti’s creations have been critically acclaimed in the New York Times, the Village Voice and Dance Connection Magazine. A relentless experimentalist with a variety of theatrical interests, she received the Dora Mavor Moore award for best costume design. She has worked extensively in Indian theatre as an actor, dramaturge and script writer. Deepti was recently a lecurer in the Aesthetics and Theory of Kathak at Kathak Kendra, National Institute of Kathak, New Delhi India.

Her recent works:

• Silk Road Melody – The performance celebrates the great literary and philosophical legacy created by Sufi poets whose message of universal love united vast regions along the famous trade routes from Persia to China.
• The Lion’s Roar – A contemporary and Kathak movement exploration. The Lion’s Roar is based upon ‘The Sutra of the Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala’, a Buddhist text written by Queen Srimala of the Kosala dynasty in the third century BC in central India.
• Snowangels – A 35-minute ensemble choreography that explores the sacred geometry of snow. It is inspired by the visual grandeur and sensuality of the snowscapes painted by Canadian Lauren Harris.

本次活动主持为 Anna Greenspan, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Global Media, IMA.

NYU Shanghai community-only event.