*Artists Announced | Akademi Artist Commissions 2024 in partnership with DanceEast

Akademi, in partnership with DanceEast, announced the launch of five artist commissions of £5000 each, to individual artists or collectives with South Asian dance at the core of their practice. One of the four commissions will be specifically awarded to an artist working at the intersection of South Asian dance and creative technology.


Through our Artist Surgeries, we have engaged with dance practitioners to understand their needs and challenges. The insights gained from these conversations have informed the development of these commissions, ensuring that they provide meaningful and impactful support to artists.

With a commission around creative technology, we seek to encourage innovation and explore the exciting prospects of combining traditional dance forms with cutting-edge technology. We asked for applications with projects around the themes of – Sustainability, Environment, Climate change, Climate-driven migration and Health and well-being.

Following a rigorous selection process by a panel of experts from Akademi, DanceEast, and the wider industry, we are pleased to unveil the artists who will receive our commissions.

  • Shivaangee Agrawal (Creative tech commission)
  • Anjana Bala
  • Chandenie Gobardhan
  • Divija Mellaly
  • Kesha Raithatha

Please join us in congratulating them! You can find out more about them and their projects below.

Selected artists will have the opportunity to use the fund over a 12-month period to explore new ideas that are bold, relevant, and exciting, and that align with Akademi’s vision and work.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will share more about their practice and projects.

2024 commission Recipients

Shivaangee Agrawal

I believe that our lack of climate change activism is rooted in a deep hopelessness about its inevitability and in our relative powerlessness against larger systems of destruction. Using group chorus, cyclical time and decay, I want audiences to be able to recognise their fatigue but also feel hopeful about the gradual + sustained change that time offers. 

Photo: Shivaangee Agrawal

I am a maker, and my practice draws upon my training in Bharatanatyam +  more experimental practices of performance. I work across dance, facilitation and research contexts and regularly use soundmaking, film, projection and collective composition. My choreographic approach foregrounds folk dance influences; I’m interested in finding relational + social virtuosity rather than more conventional forms of spectacle. I ask us to stay with our multiplicities + unsettle preconceived notions about what is a recognisably ‘Indian’ aesthetic.

Anjana Bala

In Pursuit of the Mist (working title)

Anjana will be exploring themes of rest, leisure, work, and labor. She will take inspiration from the notion of “weathered bodies,” and play with how weather and atmospheres can serve conceptual and aesthetic metaphors. She hopes to develop her current research interests in writing for dance and filmmaking.

Photo: Ravi Chandarana

Anjana Bala is a dance artist and anthropologist. She is mostly curious about how people live and how they might live well. 

https://about.me/anjanabala

Chandenie Gobardhan

Caught Again in the Net of Rebirth

Caught Again in the Net of Rebirth reflects the paradox of time through the lens of Trimurti—a layered cosmogonic concept rich with symbolism. At the core are the phases of the cycle: creation, preservation, and destruction. Time opens the door for leaving and coming home. Central to this exploration is the idea of ego death—a surrender that allows the dissolution of the old self, creating space for transformation. 

Photo: Camilla Greenwell

Chandenie Gobardhan (she/they) is a London-based, Netherlands-born artist known for their distinctive movement style. In this curated melting pot, elements of Bharatanatyam, several street styles, and contemporary dance come together. Their work challenges industry norms, bridging gaps between forms. Grounded in their Hindostaanse heritage, Chandenie’s practice continually experiments with form and structure, creating works that share important but often unheard stories. Their commissions include Tate Britain, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, The Place, Nike London, Messums Wiltshire’s Festival of Dance, and FABRIC’s Yuva Gati.

Divija Melally

The project aims to explore the relation between movement and health and well-being. I want to look at the role that dance and movement plays in positively impacting our lives physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. The project will allow me to explore these themes through Bharatanatyam, text and stories with some incredible collaborators, and I look forward to finding what we discover. 

Photo: Achala Eswara

Divija Melally is a movement artist trained in contemporary and Indian Classical dance, invested in taking movement and art to different spaces through performance, choreography and facilitation. Her creative practice revolves around exploring the amalgamation of contemporary dance and Bharatanatyam with text and theatre. She is interested in creating works that explore human themes, and strives to offer new perspectives and stories to her audience.

Kesha Raithatha

A choreographic exploration delving into the intersection of fashion, culture, and sustainability. This project will investigate the rich tradition of passing down clothing and jewellery within British South Asian culture juxtaposing it with the contemporary era of fast fashion and disposable trends. By celebrating up cycled, repurposed & pre-loved garments, will simultaneously honour rich south Asian heritage and highlight the importance of sustainability.

Photo: David Wilson Clark

Kesha is a dancer and choreographer who embodies Kathak and Contemporary movement.  

She creates work that is rich in detail and experimentally reconsiders contemporary South Asian dance. She constantly develops work which questions and interrogates what a genuinely uninterrupted and uncorrupted Contemporary South Asian dance and movement would be, if it was to be distilled out of Western Contemporary dance and movement practices.  
Kesha is also one of the Associate Directors at Aakash Odedra Company; Work Place Artist at The Place Theatre London and a Resident Creative at The Curve Leicester. 

https://kesha.dance/

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