VEENA BASAVARAJAIAH
Veena is a contemporary artiste from Bengaluru (India). She has worked
with renowned contemporary dance companies such as Shobana Jeyasingh
Dance Company(UK) & Attakkalari (India) and has performed on
various platforms across UK and Europe. She has been the recipient of
Young Achievers Award in 2007 and is also an empanelled artiste of the
Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
An independent artiste, she does
collaborative work with musicians, theatre, dance companies and
multimedia artistes.She has done her Masters in
South Asian Dance Studies from Roehampton University (UK) . She is also a dance writer for various online
platforms and her essays on South Asian Dance have been published in various books.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts-Dancer & Educationist- 2002-04
Worked as a member of Education Outreach Programme(EOP) with an objective of
incorporating dance into mainstream education. The tasks of the programme included
conducting workshops for NGO's, designing movement syllabus for schools, performance
based projects and working with school teachers to imbibe movement based teaching
techniques within conventional educational setups. Work experience included engaging with
children and young adults in both rural and urban areas and also long-term interactions with
underprivileged and street children in India. As part of the outreach programme we were also
required to contact corporations and funding agencies to help the organizations support the
cause.
Shobana Jeyasingh dance Company (UK) –Company dancer 2004-05 & 2012
Worked as dancer/performer on the company’s national tour in 2004-2005. In 2012, workedon
an education project with the company with a group of students from Mulberry School, which
is an all muslim-girl school in Whitechapel. The job was to work with them and create a short
piece of work that would be showcased at the Royal Opera House as a prelude to the
company's performance. The assignment was to explore the creativity of these girls and
introduce them to the world of professional dance. This particular project was also the case-
study of my ethnographic fieldwork essay that was part of my MA course. The whole
experience had to be documented, theorized and contextualized within a larger realm of South
Asian Dance in the Diaspora. Worked as part of the education team of the company conducting
workshops for GCSE in schools across the UK.
Angika Dance Company (UK) - Company Dancer 2006-08
Worked as a creative collaborator and education facilitator with the company on various
projects for more than 2 years. As part of the contract along with performance and touring, the
dancers were to conduct workshops in different schools and universities. Through the
company I have conducted workshops on Indian dance and aesthetics in schools across UK
and Europe. The company worked with children of various economic backgrounds and different abilities.
Sadhana Dance Company (UK) 2011-12
Working as a creative collaborator and performer for project Elixir. A choreographic project
that was in collaboration with multi-media artists and sculptor. The genre of work was
Contemporary South Asian with collaborative inputs from UK based artists. Conducting
workshops in schools across the UK was part of the project.
The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet 2007-09 & 2013
In 2009, was part of a project with the company that aimed at reaching out to around 1000
underprivileged children to give them an opportunity of experiencing a ballet performance. The
job required me to raise funds single-handedly to enable these children to have an experience of
watching a ballet performance and engage with the company through performances and
education. My work with the foundation is also that of a researcher documenting different
pedagogical tools that the foundation employs to work with dancers in India. Worked a
program manager at the Lewis Foundation curating a dance festival titled Platform One that
aimed at providing research, resources and performance avenues for choreographers in
Bangalore.
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EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING
Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts - Dance facilitator -Education Outreach Program
2003-2005
The Lewis Foundation for Classical Ballet - Education facilitator - 2010-11
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company (UK) - Education facilitator in 2005 and 2011
University of East London (UK) - Visiting lecturer - 2011-12
Independent Education Work - With more than ten years of experience of teaching
individuals across urban and rural India, conducting teacher-training workshops, creative
workshop for multinational corporations, teaching in institutional set-ups across Europe and
also working short-term with internally displaced and war affected individuals in Sri Lanka. I
have worked across the globe towards incorporating art into mainstream education and as an
integral part of the modern society.
PERFORMANCES IN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS
Pact Zollverin-International Contemporary Dance festival- Germany-2004
Indian Biennial- Bonn- Germany-2006
Frankfurt Book festival- Germany- 2006
Sziget Dance festival- Budapest- Hungary- 2007
CCBE- Performance- Antwerp- Belgium-2007
Lille festival- France 2007
Oldenburg Arts Festival- Germany- 2007
The Polyzentral Festival- Hamburg- Germany- 2007
Sammilan-2007
International Women’s Festival- Uk-2007
Zaragosa Expo- Spain- 2008
L’oridente L’occident festival- Italy- 2008
Prayog-3-Nritarutya Dance Company- 2008
Swiss Textile College- Switzerland-2009
Attakkalari Bangalore Biennale- 2009
Sammilan –International Contemporary Arts Festival-Nov-20 National School of Drama Theatre Festival - Jan-2010
Interface- Kolkata- Sep- 2010
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The Park New Festival- Chennai - dec 2009
PERFORMANCES OF INDEPENDENT WORK
August 2009 -All warmed up – Gati Summer Dance Residency - Delhi
August, 2009- NPTCL- Noida- Delhi
November 2009- Sammilan Festival , Bangalore
July, 2010 - KH Kalasoudha, Bangalore.
August, 2010 - Adi Shakthi , Pondicherry
September, 2010-Interface Festival- Kolkata
November 2010- Ignite Festival- Delhi
January- 2011 - Rangsutra Festival- Hyderabad
February-2011- Kalaghoda Festival- Mumbai
August -2011- National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore
August -2012- Alliance Francaise de Bangalore
April- 2012 - The Hat Factory, Luton, UK
August- 2012- Stockholm Fringe Festival, Sweden
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