Saturday, December 9, 2:00 pm
TICKETS HERE
Mosaic in Medicine curated by The Aseemkala Initiative
These series of pieces narrate lived embodied experiences—of how the body is judged, loved,
recovers, and changes. Each piece is an original choreography by the artists of
Aseemkala and will be introduced by the artist. We will conclude with a workshop by Sloka Iyengar.
Sloka Iyengar is a neuroscientist and practitioner of Bharatanatyam, passionate about relieving suffering through the sciences and the arts. In addition to learning from her guru and performing in and around NYC, she is creating works to explore the intersections between the arts and the sciences. She is also developing the foundation to use Bharatanatyam for creative aging. Sloka is an Aseemkala Initiative Choreography Fellow and through this fellowship, is exploring age and aging through dance. Through her piece called īkṣaṇa (Sanskrit for “sight” but also for “care” or “looking after”), she will depict themes of caregiving through dance.
Nithya Ramesh is a public health dentist and has trained in Bharatanatyam for over two decades and holds the title “Vidushi” for her scholarly accomplishments in the field. She has performed over 250 shows as part of the senior ensemble of her guru’s dance school, Natyanjali, and as a solo artist, has performed in festivals across the United States and India. She is also the director of Natyaroha, an organization focused on dance education and research, and is a research fellow with the Aseemkala Initiative.
Monica Shah is an independent dance artist who performs in both classical and contemporary Indian styles. She has trained in Bharatanatyam for over 30 years, with complimentary work in diverse movement forms, and toured North America as a senior member of the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company for a decade. Since then, Monica has performed as a soloist and guest artist in dance productions and festivals across Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and New York. Monica is a choreography fellow with the Aseemkala Initiative and also a licensed psychologist, providing therapeutic services to individuals across the age range. Her pieces draw from her experiences as a cognitive behavioral therapist - “The Space Between Pain and Healing” explores the human capacity for both great pain and extraordinary healing, and “Cognitions” examines different qualities of thoughts that can create our suffering and how we can allow them to exist while living our lives.
Shreya Srivastava is a fourth year medical student and Bharatanatyam dancer. She trained in Bharatanatyam for over 16 years at the Natya Dharmi Foundation for Performing Arts in Okemos, Michigan. Shreya studied music at Union College and participated in extensive ethnomusicology performances, workshops, and presentations throughout her undergraduate years. She also spent three years playing in the Union College Japanese Drumming (Taiko) ensemble. She then went on to medical school, where she continues research on how to incorporate the performing arts into medicine. Shreya was first a research fellow for the Aseemkala Initiative and now a board member, and hopes to continue to involve more medical students into the interdisciplinary work of narrative dance medicine. In her piece, “Fluidity,” Shreya explores the cultural exchanges that occur through medical experiences among diverse communities.
The Aseemkala Initiative uses traditional dance to narrate stories of women in medicine. Why traditional dance? There is an inherent expression of cultural empowerment in traditional dance performances–in the music, lyrics, dance gestures, religious rites, sacred food, and cultural storytelling offered to a connected community audience. Through cultural empowerment and cross-cultural exchanges with medical students, physicians-in-training who participate can better understand their patients and themselves through telling stories through their bodies. Follow our research, choreographies, and community workshops atwww.aseemkala.org or on Facebook@aseemkalainitiative.