DESI DIARY
NAUTANKI PRESENTS SMITTEN AND STARSTRUCK
From the dance film When Shakti Overpowers.
Brampton-based Nautanki Creations presents Smitten And Starstruck, a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, one-day virtual festival featuring artists from Canada and India on Sunday, August 8 at 10 am EST.
The festival will also be available for viewing online one week after the premiere.
Smitten and Starstruck is a culmination of two programs – Artist Date Series and Moved Dance Series.
Artist Date Series was created in direct response to the challenges faced by India during the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis. It strives to rejuvenate artist communities and to encourage and facilitate cross-cultural collaboration and understanding between artists in India and Canada. Through the series, eight artists in India have been “matched” with eight artists in Canada for one month of creative collaboration.
Of the applications received, 70 per cent were from dancers based in India. The Nautanki team consists of two dancers, Ankita Alemona and Nidhi Baadkar, and thus Moved – Dance Series was born out of their passion to create a space to include the work of these artists. This features six dance and movement/theatre artists from India.
Alemona, who is the Co-Creator of the Festival, is a dance and theatre artist, Kalaripayattu practitioner, producer, director and arts educator. She has over ten years of professional experience working in the arts and culture sector in Toronto and various cities in India. She has developed and facilitated education programming for Soulpepper Theatre Company, Canadian Stage Company and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Nidhi Baadkar is a professional dancer and movement artist with 15 years of training in Bharatnatyam and currently pursuing her Contemporary dance training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She is an alumnus of Attakalari Centre, India and IIPA, Bahrain. She has worked and performed in Bahrain, Canada and India.
Tickets: By donation, PWYC.