Founded in 1988 by Nilimma Devi, Sutradhar Dance Company is under the combined leadership of its Director Nilimma Devi, Artistic Director Anila Kumari and Choreographic Associate Riya Devi-Ashby (grandmother, daughter, granddaughter). The company is anchored in the South Indian dance form of Kuchipudi and the teachings of stalwart gurus: Jaggantath Vedantam Sarma, Prahlad Vedantam Sarma, Dr. Nataraj Ramakrishna and Padma Bhushan Kalanidhi Naryanan. In expanding the tradition, the choreography is radical: reimagining South Asian storytelling into multi-lingual celebrations of those most shorn of social dignity – including women of color, of indigenous origin, or of low caste. Fleeing mob violence as a refugee of India’s Partition, as well as struggling to be allowed into the male Brahmin guild, informs director Nilimma Devi’s resolve to bring people to the point of dialogue. Weaving grassroots narratives the company has been hailed by the Washington Post as: “having pushed the form forward with contemporary innovations.” Confluence defines the studio work at Sutradhar as it emerges in a women led team that brings social justice to studio work. Awarded the Twenty-first Century grant by the Montgomery County Arts Council the company was a part of creating an interdisciplinary program for elementary schools in crisis by using drum rhythm to convey simple but powerful ideas. Partnerships such as with the Somapa Thai company or Coyaba Dance company, create collective relationships that last long after a new work is staged; bringing collective energies to the spiritual principle of vasudev kutumbham, or the world is one family.’ The company applies ancient wisdom to contemporary context. A Senior Research fellow for AIIS (American Institute of Indian Studies) where she collected data on hand gesture transmission. Nilimma Devi presented her paper “The Communal Embrace” on the adaptive function of dance within the immigrant community to CORD. She has been awarded the Governor’s Citation, the Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Saraswati Cultural Creativity Initiative Award. Bringing Tibetan horn, South Indian Carnatic, and Pali language translation in 'Mandala” she brought to life a 9th Century Buddhist woman; heralded as “one of the earliest women authored writings in the world canon.” By scripting epical heroine Sita as “wielding the most potent weapon – compassion,” she reframed feminist debate around the idea of non-violence within a worldwide sacred ecology. Anila Kumari brings forth issues both perennial and contemporary, such as gender violence, anxiety and identity in crisis besides others. Her choreographic vision works in tandem with Nilimma Devi’s mission to reconcile hate with a larger peace, by finding cultural mirrors in diaspora communities. Community threads Anila Kumari’s creative steps: inviting children ages 4 – 16 years into traditional storytelling, setting panel discussions with South Asian gender scholars, and inviting elders or grandparents to take part in storytelling by sharing their own stories of immigrating to the United States. Creating ‘Sita’s Words’ a. summer program for teens struggling with body dysmorphia and ‘Pandemic Hues’ a virtual gallery for children holding their own in social lockdown she has aligned Natyashastra’s dramaturgy with current need for wholeness within identity. Reimagined myths to counter denialism have led to collaborations with Daniel Burkholder ‘My Ocean is Never Blue and Iranian composer and refugee Ahmed Bohrani in ‘Hejrat, Exodus.’ In ‘Saree Conversations’ Anila worked from the standpoint of dialogue around 9 yard traditional garb for Indian women; setting a youth panel to talk about current ideas of modesty, clothing and tradition. With research on handloom weaving communities in Hyderabad, she connected the diaspora conversation back to the traditions under commercial threat in villages. Riya Devi-Ashby brings a movement fluency in Kuchipudi and the sword form of Thang Ta martial arts. Even as she is creating a hybrid language with renowned guru Khilton Nongmaithem Riya is documenting the point at which tradition changes or resists transformation. An award-winning visual artist whose installations have been seen at Towson University, Wesleyan University and University of Maryland, Riya has explored the toxic intimacy between gender, colorism and myth in Veni, an Unweaving. Riya sees the advance of visual representation – canvas, digital, and kinetic – as a means to strip inequity; restore dignity. She has performed, co-written scripts, and co-choreographed work for Dance Place, Havre de Grace, Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, and Walters Museum. The company is led through improvisational training exercises with Khilton Nongmaithem one of the greatest living exponents of the Thang Ta martial arts tradition. A pioneer of intersecting martial arts with theater that is at once local Manipuri and universal, Khilton has spoken out about the role of playful inspiration within gurukul discipline and translated ecological symbolism for the warrior. He has won competitions in international stages of Germany, U.K, and India. By translating the tradition of Thang Ta within the culture of Manipur into socio-political issues of our day, Khilton is able to create meaningful contexts that transcend time and space. His grasp of the idiosyncrasies of myth that are beyond borders, allows him to convey ideas of identity that are at once intensely Manipuri, broadly Indian and widely diaspora Asian. It is his very rootedness within his native land, with its rich cultural heritage that allows him to be the proponent of self-expression within a revered tradition ever at flow Founded in 1988 by Nilimma Devi, Sutradhar Dance Company is under the combined leadership of its Director Nilimma Devi, Artistic Director Anila Kumari and Choreographic Associate Riya Devi-Ashby (grandmother, daughter, granddaughter). The company is anchored in the South Indian dance form of Kuchipudi and the teachings of stalwart gurus: Jaggantath Vedantam Sarma, Prahlad Vedantam Sarma, Dr. Nataraj Ramakrishna and Padma Bhushan Kalanidhi Naryanan. In expanding the tradition, the choreography is radical: reimagining South Asian storytelling into multi-lingual celebrations of those most shorn of social dignity – including women of color, of indigenous origin, or of low caste. Fleeing mob violence as a refugee of India’s Partition, as well as struggling to be allowed into the male Brahmin guild, informs director Nilimma Devi’s resolve to bring people to the point of dialogue. Weaving grassroots narratives the company has been hailed by the Washington Post as: “having pushed the form forward with contemporary innovations.”
Confluence defines the studio work at Sutradhar as it emerges in a women led team that brings social justice to studio work. Awarded the Twenty-first Century grant by the Montgomery County Arts Council the company was a part of creating an interdisciplinary program for elementary schools in crisis by using drum rhythm to convey simple but powerful ideas. Partnerships such as with the Somapa Thai company or Coyaba Dance company, create collective relationships that last long after a new work is staged; bringing collective energies to the spiritual principle of vasudev kutumbham, or the world is one family.’
The company applies ancient wisdom to contemporary context. A Senior Research fellow for AIIS (American Institute of Indian Studies) where she collected data on hand gesture transmission. Nilimma Devi presented her paper “The Communal Embrace” on the adaptive function of dance within the immigrant community to CORD. She has been awarded the Governor’s Citation, the Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Saraswati Cultural Creativity Initiative Award. Bringing Tibetan horn, South Indian Carnatic, and Pali language translation in 'Mandala” she brought to life a 9th Century Buddhist woman; heralded as “one of the earliest women authored writings in the world canon.” By scripting epical heroine Sita as “wielding the most potent weapon – compassion,” she reframed feminist debate around the idea of non-violence within a worldwide sacred ecology.
Anila Kumari brings forth issues both perennial and contemporary, such as gender violence, anxiety and identity in crisis besides others. Her choreographic vision works in tandem with Nilimma Devi’s mission to reconcile hate with a larger peace, by finding cultural mirrors in diaspora communities. Community threads Anila Kumari’s creative steps: inviting children ages 4 – 16 years into traditional storytelling, setting panel discussions with South Asian gender scholars, and inviting elders or grandparents to take part in storytelling by sharing their own stories of immigrating to the United States.
Creating ‘Sita’s Words’ a. summer program for teens struggling with body dysmorphia and ‘Pandemic Hues’ a virtual gallery for children holding their own in social lockdown she has aligned Natyashastra’s dramaturgy with current need for wholeness within identity. Reimagined myths to counter denialism have led to collaborations with Daniel Burkholder ‘My Ocean is Never Blue and Iranian composer and refugee Ahmed Bohrani in ‘Hejrat, Exodus.’ In ‘Saree Conversations’ Anila worked from the standpoint of dialogue around 9 yard traditional garb for Indian women; setting a youth panel to talk about current ideas of modesty, clothing and tradition. With research on handloom weaving communities in Hyderabad, she connected the diaspora conversation back to the traditions under commercial threat in villages.
Riya Devi-Ashby brings a movement fluency in Kuchipudi and the sword form of Thang Ta martial arts. Even as she is creating a hybrid language with renowned guru Khilton Nongmaithem Riya is documenting the point at which tradition changes or resists transformation. An award-winning visual artist whose installations have been seen at Towson University, Wesleyan University and University of Maryland, Riya has explored the toxic intimacy between gender, colorism and myth in Veni, an Unweaving. Riya sees the advance of visual representation – canvas, digital, and kinetic – as a means to strip inequity; restore dignity. She has performed, co-written scripts, and co-choreographed work for Dance Place, Havre de Grace, Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, and Walters Museum.
The company is led through improvisational training exercises with Khilton Nongmaithem one of the greatest living exponents of the Thang Ta martial arts tradition. A pioneer of intersecting martial arts with theater that is at once local Manipuri and universal, Khilton has spoken out about the role of playful inspiration within gurukul discipline and translated ecological symbolism for the warrior. He has won competitions in international stages of Germany, U.K, and India. By translating the tradition of Thang Ta within the culture of Manipur into socio-political issues of our day, Khilton is able to create meaningful contexts that transcend time and space. His grasp of the idiosyncrasies of myth that are beyond borders, allows him to convey ideas of identity that are at once intensely Manipuri, broadly Indian and widely diaspora Asian. It is his very rootedness within his native land, with its rich cultural heritage that allows him to be the proponent of self-expression within a revered tradition ever at flow.
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