I Dance to touch the intangible.
I dAnce to feel, process, dive deep, sit in discomfort and to let go.
I daNce to hide in imaginary realms.
I danCe to be seen.
I dancE to dream.
I DaNcE to freedom.
I dance to ME.
I dance.
REFLECTION
Dance was never something I actively considered pursuing in my growing years, but as I reflect back, I find that it was always present in my life. My earliest childhood sensations around dance are of pure joy and abandon. In the moments that I danced, I could access a part of me that allowed for complete self acceptance around my sexual identity and gender expression.
Some of my earliest memories that clearly stay with me to this day are around visuals and sounds of the dance we now call bharatanatyam. There was a sensory overload in its experience. The mridangam made my heart dance. I was instantly attracted to the vibrant red on palms and feet painted in alta and the heady fragrance of jasmine gajras. All of these sensations inform my personal and dance aesthetic even today and creep up in my creative processes.
Formal dance training came much later in my life. In experiencing its formality, I have occupied space (many times simultaneously) as student of dance, performer, interpreter and now dance maker. After having trained for over a decade in a form steeped in a history of erasure, marginalization and appropriation, I feel compelled to deeply consider the implications of my positioning as a privileged body occupying this space.
Many questions, curiosities, disconnections and negotiations later, today I find myself standing in its essence as a loud and proud queer person, slowly finding my voice in its gift. As I continue to learn and to unlearn, as I make peace with its complexity and find new ways to be present with it, I find myself drawn to making work that celebrates explicit erotic sensuality through my queer body and experience, taking power away from privileged conditioning of shame, taboo and exclusion around the queer body through heteronormative lenses of “morality”, “decency” and “dignity”.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SAMAR: An Evening Of Bharatanataym
Presented by Time Will Tell Arts Society
Surrey Arts Centre
May 10, 2025
Dancer: Sujit Vaidya
Percussion: Curtis Andrews
Nattuvangam: Arno Kamolika
Vocals: Sheema Balaji
Violin: Shriram Rajagopalan
PAST EVENTS
Breathe In The Fragrance
A celebration of nostalgia through the scent of Mogra (Indian jasmine), this work for three dancers and three musicians combines traditional Indian dance elements with queer fantasy.
Breathe In The Fragrance is an erotic ritual sourced from bodily records and memories of India, an invitation for collective transformation through the sensory experience of smell, sound, taste and touch.
An independent dance artist, Sujit’s interested in accessing slowness, re-aligning gaze around virtuosity through a non Eurocentric lens, and amplifying small gestures curated with detailed attention to intent.
Sacred Sacrilegious
Sacred Sacrilegious will screen in Vancouver on Dec 3rd at SUM gallery.
If you’re interested, please RSVP using the link below. Space is limited. It’ll be available as a 4-channel video installation at SUM from Dec 4-13 during gallery hours.
Studio Salon Series
Co Erasga’s Salon Series is a FREE event featuring works in progress by local artists. In person audience capacity is limited to 40 people. Please register for tickets. The fall salon series is part of Dance In Vancouver’s ARC series.
I will present a short work in progress excerpt from a new work in development, Śṛṅgāra {All Things Erotic}. I’m exploring a traditional erotic poem as my point of entry into this work. The attempt is to minimise gesture, and to amplify small moments with detailed attention to intent, to create a space to linger, pause, luxuriate, indulge and to connect, and to experience traditionality with all of its specificities and expansiveness.
Sacred Sacrilegious
Sacred Sacrilegious explores the body as an offering to the five elements in accordance with Hindu philosophy (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space). This 40-minute film is an abstraction of ideas that are placed through the body as moving landscapes, in an attempt to access one-ness with the elemental self through intimate and erotic rituals. Through the use of gestural and movement language from Bharatanatyam, you are invited to hold space for intimacy and longing while questioning your gaze on the performing body.
Join us for a restful and reflective film screening and live in-person experience in shared space, as the film delves into sensuality, intimacy, and eroticism, and problematizes taboo and shame with queer South Asian identities in traditional contexts.
Sujit Vaidy: Concept/ Choreography/ Dancer
Robert Kingsbur: Videography/ Editor
Parmela Attariwala: Sound Design
Anusha Fernando / Shakti Dance
Sky Dancers emerged from a year-long gathering of six outstanding Bharata Natyam dance artists, who formed a unique collaborative space to explore the core elements of the form: stillness, presence, energy, musicality, ritual, and stories. Using the framework of the Dakini (Sky Dancer), a Buddhist symbol of the dynamic play of energy in the universe, the choreography expresses both the dancers’ personal voices and the rich traditions and meditative practices that have emerged from India.
Conceived and directed by Anusha Fernando, Sky Dancers is performed by Arno Kamolika, Kiruthika Rathanaswami, Malavika Santhosh, Ashvini Sundaram and Sujit Vaidya, joined on stage by musicians and meditators/chanters.
Post-show artist talkback October 5.
Scotiabank Dance Centre
Friday-Saturday October 4-5, 2024 | 7pm
Sunday October 6, 2024 | 2pm
More Info: https://thedancecentre.ca/event/anusha-fernando-shakti-dance/
SADHANA
An Evening of Bharatanatyam
Hello!
I have been programmed by Time Will Tell Arts Society and Caravan World Rhythms, to present an evening of Bharatanatyam, on Thursday April 25th in Vancouver, Friday April 26th in Gibsons and Saturday, April 27th in Powell River.
The brief was to present “traditional” work. I’m calling it SADHANA (spiritual practice, discipline required to attain a goal), which also happens to be my mom’s name.
As some of you may know, I have not presented “traditional” choreographies in a while, seven years to be precise. I’ve been focused on learning and unlearning histories of the dance form I practice, creative processes and making dances. I’m not entirely sure that I know how to define “traditional” work anymore.
For Sadhana, an evening of Bharatanatyam, I have chosen to go back to sourcing from somatic intelligence, choreographies buried deep in muscle memory, allowing dances that sit in my body to re-emerge with agency and experience. I have chosen to celebrate form and some of my favourite compositions, in the dances I will present and in the music from the 4 person live musical ensemble.
These are choreographies of my dance teacher, A.Lakshamanaswamy, who will accompany the dance as nattuvanar or orchestra conductor. The rest of the musical ensemble consists of Curtis Andrews on mridangam, Ramya Kapadia on vocals and Raman Kalyan on flute. I urge you to come support these brilliant musicians.
It would be very meaningful to have you in our audience, in supporting work that comes from a specificity that is not part of mainstream dance. I find it important to represent the form in its rich tradition of “alive-ness”, when dance and live music dialogue.
Hope to see some of you there.
Could I also request that you share this information on your platforms to amplify our voice if you are able? I’m attaching a poster and a reel to forward/ share.
Warmly,
Sujit
www.sujitvaidya.ca
Vancouver ticket link:
https://www.vtixonline.com/time-will-tell-arts-society/4108/
Gibsons ticket link:
https://www.vtixonline.com/time-will-tell-arts-society/4147/
Powell River ticket link:
www.powellriverprc.ca
Breathe In The Fragrance
Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
June 23, 2023 – One performance only!
A queer fantasy celebrating deeply embedded memories awakened by the Indian Jasmine flower, mogra.
INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL
OFF CENTRE
An exploration of queer identity through dance.
Tuesday, July 12 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
$5 – $45