Off Season Chats - Brinda Guha on Embracing Multiplicity

Our last Off Season Chat is a two-part conversation with Brinda Guha, a NYC-based multifaceted dancer and choreographer who has trained in a variety of styles including: Kathak, Manipuri, Yorchhā, Flamenco, and Contemporary. This week, Brinda reflects on her artistic journey, ways to build a dance community responsibly, and the future of South Asian dance at large.Off Season Chats is a new series in which we have intimate conversations with dancers who are forging new paths in their artistic, personal, and professional lives. Our special guests are accomplished artists whose works span across many genres of South Asian dance including: Kathak, Kandyan, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, Odissi, and much more. About Brinda GuhaBrinda Guha identifies as a non-disabled, caste-privileged, cisgender and queer South-Asian American, and is a trained Kathak dancer for over 20 years. During training and performing for years in the Kathak (Malabika Guha) & Manipuri (Kalavati + Bimbavati Devi) dance disciplines, as well as Flamenco (Carmen de las Cuevas; Dionisia Garcia) and Contemporary Fusion vocabularies, she co-founded Kalamandir Dance Company in 2010 based in the vocabulary of #ContemporaryIndian. She’s choreographed for many national stages, the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden, and self-produced original feature-length dance productions which earned her artist residencies at Dixon Place (2018) and Dancewave (2019) to continue to develop work. Now, she is represented by CESD Talent Agency and is pursuing artistic direction, performance and arts education. She trains in Kathak, Manipuri, Yorchhā (est. Ananya Chatterjee), and Contemporary. Her dream of having art meet activism was realized when she created WISE FRUIT NYC, a seasonal live arts installment (est 2017) dedicated to the feminine divine and honoring select women-led organizations. For her day job, she works as the Symposium Coordinator for dance service organization based in the values of justice, equity & inclusion: Dance/NYC. CreditsToday’s episode of Off Season Chats would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of our amazing listeners and the following people:   We Edit Podcasts for audio engineering Sangeetha Kowsik for graphic design of our logo Wesley Beeks & Bertel King, Jr. Liked what you heard? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and other streaming services, subscribe to the podcast, and tell your friends about us so that more people can find this show! You can also join our conversation by following us on social media at @offthebeatdance on IG, FB, Twitter, and Tik Tok or by visiting us at www.offthebeat.dance. We’d love to hear from you.   Off the Beat is a passion project, and we really need your help to make this podcast a long-term and sustainable venture. Please consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com/offthebeatdance so that we can continue to bring you more content. And together, we can create a new dance future...one beat at a time! Off Season Chats is an Off The Beat production.