Sattriya Dance Theatre of India

Award-winning Indian classical dance soloist, choreographer and ethnomusicologist Menaka PP Bora will perform an innovative dance production, Sattriya Dance Theatre, which premiered at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013. She will be in conversation with leading musicologists followed by a Q/A with audiences.

Using speech, theatrical props, rare music and classical Indian choreography, Menaka will explore the contemporary challenges of traditional dance and music from a pan-Asian perspective. Through her artistic work, she will respond to topical issues of 'transnationalism' in South Asian performing arts. What does it mean to perform traditional dance and music in globalizing India today? How do we negotiate identities through dance and music? How do we respond to transnational cultural flows from the 'West' to the 'East' and vice versa?

Menaka has won Sangeet Natak Akademi Yuva Puraskar (India's most prestigious national award for young artists) and Wingate scholarships in Music at Oxford University.