Professor Ananya Chatterjea, Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, and Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre

Monday 19 May 2014, 6pm, DU.103, Duchesne Building, Digby Stuart College

Broadly speaking, dance is often associated in the popular imaginary with fun, entertainment, and virtuosity. Yet dancing models some crucial practices of building solidarity and community, while simultaneously offering space for claiming self. What might it mean to harness the tremendous energy generated through dancing to issues of social justice? What might it mean to reframe the trajectory of concert dance in this way, at a time when dance is so strongly located in easy accessibility and a kind of hypervisibility through a plethora of television reality shows? I will speak about my own journey as a choreographer and artistic director of a dance company of women of color, making dance at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice, to illustrate some of the challenges and difficulties in this work.