Shilpanatanam is a style of movement and choreographic vision conceived by Maya Kulkarni that departs from the structures of classical dance technique and conventional dramaturgy. Unlike its predecessor, Shilpanatanam is par excellence a narrative dance form that sidesteps the traditional focus on devotional poetics. Instead, it taps into the wider world of literature and poetry.‘Shilpa’ includes sculptures, paintings, and architecture in its broad meaning while ‘Natanam’ refers to movement, expression, and rhythm. Shilpanatanam brings static images to life with movement and narratives. In it, stories become dancing metaphors about human conditions; they enjoin the past to the present. Such a project requires a new language; Shilpanatanam is that language.
Dancers
Bharathi has over 10 years of professional training in Bharatnatyam under Shri Justin McCarthy.
Her credentials include a Post graduate diploma in Bharatanatyam and a Yoga Teachers Training Program certification from Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram.
She has been a part of several performances worldwide, the highlight of which has been her performance as the lead protagonist in an Indian National Award-Winning documentary, O Friend, This Waiting, directed by Justin McCarthy & Sandhya Kumar, and screened in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, San Francisco & Paris. She has appeared in both solo and group performances such as the Dance Season & Drive East events of Navatman Dance Company in New York, the India Revival Group, showcasing Incredible India, in Montreal & Toronto, the Rukmani Devi Arundale Music and Dance Festival, the Sangeeth Natak Academy Awards and in several of Justin McCarthy’s Bharatnatyam Dance productions. Her teaching experiences stem from a combination of working at some of the most prestigious institutions such as Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in New Delhi and Delhi Tamil Sangham.
DR. KAUSTAVI SARKAR
Dr. Kaustavi Sarkar, Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, is an Odissi (eastern Indian traditional art form) soloist, scholar, and educator. Disciple of Guru Sujata Mohapatra, Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, and Guru Poushali Mukherjee, Sarkar has received national awards and scholarships from the Ministry of Culture, India. She has represented India at the Commonwealth Day Celebrations in Sri Lanka 2007 and has received numerous national fellowships and awards by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, India. She has performed over the past two decades as a soloist and as ensemble member with Srjan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Dance Ensemble and with Uday Shankar India Culture Center.
A two-time NEA awardee and multiple state and regional grant recipient, Sarkar dedicates her creative and scholarly practice to feminist and queer research and pedagogy. Her choreography and scholarship has been featured in Nritya-Darpan, Erasing Borders, American College Dance Association Conference, Dance Studies Association, World Dance Alliance, and Odissi International. She is the founder and manager of “South Asian Dance Intersections”, a journal dedicated to South Asian dance studies.
Sarkar is dedicated to Dr. Maya Kulkarni’s Shilpanatanam as a research project. She has performed to wide acclaim two pieces choreographed by Kulkarni, Woman with a Parrot and An Impossible Romance in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio.
SHALINI BASU
Shalini Basu is a New York based Indian Classical Dancer. Since 2012, Shalini has been studying Odissi under the tutelage of Guru Kaustavi Sarkar and frequently offers solo performances in Ohio, North Carolina, and New York. In January 2021, Shalini was recognized nationally as the first Odissi dancer to win the National YoungArts award for Dance. Since then, Shalini has gone on to win grants awarded through the Ohio Arts Council to work as an apprentice to master artists such as Maya Kulkarni. In December 2024, Shalini completed her undergraduate thesis on Hierarchies in Indian Classical Dance. Currently, Shalini continues to deepen her mental and physical practice of the Indian Classical Arts through Odissi, under Kaustavi Sarkar, and through Shilpanatanam, under Maya Kulkarni.