Asialink Arts and the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2019 Australia - India Dance Exchange.
"Curate - Catalyse - Cultivate: The Pickle Factory is a hub for the practice, presentation and discourse of dance and movement-based performance in Kolkata, working in spaces re- purposed for the arts. We respond to the absence of spaces for discourse and development for dance in India, spaces where practitioners can explore their practice, share and exchange ideas and values, interact with current and potential audiences, embracing and cutting across the many frictions of form, style, aesthetics & politics that now divide rather than strengthen us."
- Vikram Iyengar, Kolkata-based Co-Director of Pickle Factory Dance Foundation
Artists Niharika Senapati and Pippa Samaya will work in collaboration with the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation in Kolkata later this year to create a series of dance works with the local community that will serve as dedications to the complexity of Identity. Having worked together over a number of years, Niharika and Pippa are interested in connecting to broader networks, to fully understand the local residency environment, especially in relation to feminist discourse, climate crisis and colonisation. They write,
'In the face of these tensions, we are interested in how we can create spaces for collaborative and non-linear ways of working. We seek to integrate rest practices and imagination into the residency and value the wellbeing of a person as a direct political choice to begin deconstructing irrelevant socio-political structures.'
The 2019 Australia - India Dance Exchange is the newest edition to Asialink Arts’ growing reciprocal residency program. Developed in close consultation with Vikram Iyengar, Director of the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation in Kolkata, it is a unique experience for a Victorian based artistic duo to grow their collaborative practice in an international context. The opportunity is made possible through the generous support of Creative Victoria.
- Niharika Senapati
Niharika Senapati is first generation Australian with Indian parents, based in Melbourne. Her practice is suspended between multiple roles as a contemporary dancer, performer, Countertechnique teacher, maker, rehearsal director and also extends to acting and sound design. She is a specialist in Countertechnique and teaches internationally. From 2012-2018, she performed with Chunky Move under the artistic direction of Anouk van Dijk. Most recently she performed in Trustees by Belarus Free Theatre at Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne Festival, 2018), F Project by Prue Lang and precipice by Rachel Arianne Ogle (Perth, 2019).
- Pippa Samaya
Pippa Samaya is a Melbourne-based photographer/film-maker with two overlapping specialisations: dance/movement and documentary. Awards include winner of International 60 Second Dance Film Competition, Australian Dance Award for Film Excellence, SALON exhibit at CCP, Best Music Video at NIMA awards, finalist in the National Photography Prize, Ballarat International Foto Biennale and IRIS portraiture prize. Pippa has worked extensively with the dance industry in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Pippa’s humanitarian documentary work evolved from several years traveling with NGO One Voice to remote villages in India and Nicaragua, and a Syrian Refugee camp in Greece, documenting human experience and connection through co-creation.
For more information please contact Sarah Jones on sarah.jones1@unimelb.edu.au or +61 3 9035 6349.
This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Header image: Pippa Samayas photograph of Niharika Senapati during the making of film Chenrezi. Image courtesy of the artists, 2019.