Kalamandir Dance Company is a Contemporary Indian dance ensemble dedicated to community, transparency + womanhood. Led by Brinda Guha, Kalamandir is currently identifying and codifying their ideological philosophy that drives their work and carves out their space in the rich heritage of the Contemporary Indian movement umbrella. Our dancers generously offer an inspired array of dance techniques that span across the globe, and we are driven by creativity, human emotions, the feminine divine, and a desire to be released from the four walls of our daily existence. Our movement vocabulary is a collective effort that aims to create a reachable area for all people to participate and communicate.
History
Founded in 2009, Kalamandir Dance Company is the creative vision of Malabika Guha, director and teacher of the 35 years-running Kalamandir Kathak and Creative Dance school of NJ. Malabika wanted to bring together advanced dancers with a foundation in Indian Classical dance and use their experience with Western dance training and movement theory to expand on original storylines and ideas. Her hope was that a dance company with a rich repertoire of movement and expression would be able to demonstrate the true universality of human emotions and experiences. The result was a collaborative company of dancers with training in kathak, ballet, odissi, modern, bharatanatyam, flamenco and capoeira who started meeting weekly to explore all the exciting possibilities that their diverse abilities, ideologies, and experiences had to offer.
Founder – Malabika Guha
Malabika Guha grew up in Kolkata and Shantiniketan, India where her training of more than two decades in Creative and Kathak dance began. She is a disciple of Guru Bela Arnob in Kolkata, India and was a student under Amala Shankar at Uday Shankar India Cultural Center where she was also in the advanced tour troupe. In 1969, Malabika graduated from Patha Bhavan School in Shantiniketan with Honors in Bengali and a High Secondary focus in Sitar and went on to earn a BA in Bengali with a main elective in dance from Rabindra Bharathi University in Kolkata in 1973. She completed her masters in Bengali at Calcutta University in 1977. Once Malabika moved to the United States, she attended Parsons School of Design and graduated with an Associate’s degree in Interior Design. In 1986, she followed her dream to found Kalamandir of New Jersey, a dance school based in kathak and creative dance. She received recognition of excellence in Community leadership in 1989 from the Mayor of Jersey City and in 2014 at the North American Bengali Conference in Orlando. She has traveled with her school throughout the US and with her advanced troupe to India, London, Canada, Spain as well as throughout the US.
After 20 years of dance training and almost 30 years of directing the tri-state area’s most well known Indian dance school, Malabika decided to take on a new endeavor: Kalamandir Dance Company. Her idea was to create a collaborative establishment where after many years of classical training, fusion with contemporary elements could open a new world of possibilities: a reflection of her own dance experience.
“I dream one day my students will feel the dedication I have seen in my guru’s eyes. They will experience the sensation of being immersed in a larger universe with a sense of creative joy as my teachers in Shantiniketan made me feel. And they will feel the team spirit and camaraderie I have felt as a part of Uday Shankar’s troupe. Greatest of all, they will feel the sense of freedom a true dancer always feels; a freedom above the mundane, the ordinary, and the four walls of our daily existence.”
A curriculum vitae is available upon request.
Co-Founder + Director
Brinda Guha (www.brindaguha.com) identifies as a non-disabled, caste-privileged, cisgender and queer South-Asian American, and is a trained Indian Classical Kathak dancer for over 20 years and has traveled throughout USA and to India, England, and Spain to perform. During training and performing for years in the Kathak (Malabika Guha) & Manipuri (Kalavati Devi) dance disciplines, as well as Flamenco (Carmen de las Cuevas; Dionisia Garcia) and Contemporary Fusion vocabularies, she co-founded Kalamandir Dance Company in 2010 based in the vocabulary (under Contemporary Indian dance) of #KalamandirStyle. This name is currently under review. Through Kalamandir, Brinda choreographed for many national stages, the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden, and self-produced and choreographed original feature-length dance productions which earned her artist residencies at Dixon Place (2018) and Dancewave (2019) to continue to develop work. Now, she is represented by CESD Talent Agency and is pursuing artistic direction, performance and arts education. She continues to train in Kathak, Manipuri, Yorchhā (est. Ananya Chatterjee), and Contemporary. Brinda also dances with dynamic percussive trio Soles of Duende, featuring Flamenco (Arielle Rosales), Tap (Amanda Castro), and Kathak. Her dream of having art meet activism was realized when she created WISE FRUIT NYC, a seasonal live arts installment (est 2017) dedicated to the feminine divine and honoring select women-led organizations. Between live installments, Wise Fruit NYC functions as a community-led space for beginner tools in social justice. For her day job, she works as the Symposium Coordinator for dance service organization based in the values of justice, equity & inclusion: Dance/NYC.
Co-Founder
Ria DasGupta is a co-founder of Kalamandir Dance Company. She trained in classical ballet and modern dance for 14 years with the Academy of Dance Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey before being introduced to the world of classical and Rabindrik Indian dance by Malabika Guha in the early 2000s. Since then, she studied Bharatanatyam under Chitra Venkateswaran and trained in capoeira and other Afro-Brazilian arts under the guidance of Contra Mestre Maranhão. In 2014, upon moving to the Bay Area, she began her study of Kathak with Seibi Lee at Chhandam School of Kathak, where she is now a member of the faculty. Ria performed internationally in Spain, India, and Bolivia and extensively in the US with Kalamandir Dance Company (KDC). With KDC, she co-choreographed two evening length productions and several short pieces in which she also performed as a principal dancer. She is currently a junior dancer with the Leela Dance Collective. In addition to her ongoing study of Kathak, Ria is a doctoral candidate in education at the University of San Francisco and a higher education administrator.
New York City Dancers (Current & Guest)
Repertoire
Heat
Debuted in September 2009
Concept by Malabika Guha
Music by Zakir Hussein
Costumes by Malabika Guha
Original Production Singers: Arunava Chakrabarty, Jayeeta Ghosh, Zafar Billah
Original Production Choreography: Ariana (Ria) DasGupta, Jamuna Dasi, Brinda Guha, Natasha Mehra, Nalini Neubert, Donia Salem
Water
Debuted in September 2010
Concept by Malabika Guha
Music by Biplab Mondal & Subrata Mukherjee
Costumes by Malabika Guha & Anuradha Basu
Original Choreography: Ariana (Ria) DasGupta, Jamuna Dasi, Brinda Guha, Donia Salem
Reviews here
Prithibhi
Premiere Length Production Directed by Malabika Guha
Debuted in July 2010
Concept by Malabika Guha
Poetry by Rabindranath Tagore
Music by Tarit Bhattacharya & Company (Kolkata, India)
Costumes by Malabika Guha
Original Choreography: Ariana (Ria) DasGupta, Jamuna Dasi, Marlene Desiree, Brinda Guha, Nalini Neubert, Donia Salem
Palmistry
Debuted in March 2011
Concept by Malabika Guha
Music by Tabla Beat Science & Ananda Shankar
Costumes by Malabika Guha
Original Choreography: Ariana (Ria) DasGupta, Jamuna Dasi, Brinda Guha, Anu Sahasrabudhe, Donia Salem
Rise
Debuted in May 2012
Concept by Malabika Guha, Brinda Guha
Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”
Music by Biplab Mondal & Company (Kolkata, India)
Choreography: Shuchorita Bose, Ariana (Ria) Dasgupta, Brinda Guha, Karishma Minocha, Donia Salem
The Love That Remains
Debuted in September 2012
Concept by Dancers of KDC, Malabika Guha
Music: “Isa Lei” by Ry Cooder & Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, “Easy” by Norah Jones & Anoushka Shanker, “Ogum Ê” by Mestre Sorriso & Contramestre Cravo.
Choreography: Ariana (Ria) Dasgupta, Brinda Guha, Donia Salem
Reve(a)l
Debuted in November 2013
Concept by Dancers of KDC, Malabika Guha
Music: “Wild Ghuneroos Pt. 2” by Prem Joshua
Choreography: Malabika Guha, Ariana (Ria) Dasgupta, Brinda Guha, Donia Salem
Reviews here!
Quiet Joy
Debuted in June 2014
Music: Apparat’s “Arcadia”
Choreography: Brinda Guha
Original Dancers: Jose Fernando Salazar, Elina Hsiung, Jahnavi Sheriff, Jeremy Davidson, Devon Lubar, Ayesha Hassanwalia, Ianthe Mellors, Ramita Ravi, Rahi & Brinda Guha
Traces of You
Debuted in September 2014
Music: Anoushka Shankar & Norah Jones’ “Traces of You”
Choreography: Brinda Guha
Original Dancers: Elina Hsiung, Alex Isenberg, Elodie Dufroux, Rohit Gijare, Maria Fadden, Reginald Webber Jr., Stephanie Lim, Devon Lubar, Jeremy Davidson, Kristy Viterbo, Vivake Khamsingsavath, Jaisson Restrepo, Brinda Guha
Homelands
Debuted in June 2015
Music: Nitin Sawhney’s “Homelands”
Choreography: Brinda Guha
Original Dancers: Ali Koinoglou, Amanda Carlson, Amanda Peterson, Carmie Girdlestone, Cassie Broussard, Elodie Dufroux, Ianthe Mellors, Jeremy Davidson, Kainaaz Pardiwala, Kristy Viterbo, Lauren DeAngelo, Maria Fadden, Ramita Ravi, Rashmi Rajendran, Reginald Webber, Stephanie Lim, Taylor Green, Timmy Wassermand, Vivake Khamsingsavath
Promo Ad for Homelands at YCF2015!
Tribe
Debuted in September 2015
Music: Nosaj Thing’s “Tell”
Choreography: Brinda Guha
Original Dancers: Kristy Viterbo, Maria Fadden, Stephanie Lim, Vivake Khamsingsavath, Amanda Peterson, Carmie Girdlestone, Hector Lopez, Elodie Dufroux, Heather Liposky, Taylor Green, Brinda Guha
Break Clustered
Debuted in August 2015
Recited & Written by Suheir Hammad
Choreography by Brinda Guha
Danced by Stephanie Lim
one to(o) many colors
Based on the poetry of Rupi Kaur
Choreography by Brinda Guha
Performed multiple times 2016-2017
Emanate
Debuted in April 2016
Music by Phoria
Choreography by Brinda Guha
Video here!
urbanJATRA: Planting Seeds of the Past
Debuted in March 2018
Full-length original production; Debuted Dixon Place (6 nights!)
Choreography & Direction by Brinda Guha
Photos Here!
Our World
Debuted in September 2018, Danza Heights Festival
Music by LVDF
Choreography by Brinda Guha
Video here!
urbanJATRA 2.0
Debuted in April 2019
Split bill with Jessica Lewis Arts, Mark O’Donnell Theater @ Actor’s Fund
Choreography & Direction by Brinda Guha
Photos Here!
Boy With A Coin
Debuted in April 2019
Video trailer here! Footage by Aidan Gibney
Choreography & Direction by Brinda Guha
I Did It
Debuted in July 2019
Video trailer here! Footage by Kenichi Kasamatsu
Choreography & Direction by Brinda Guha
Pine & Ginger
Debuted in August 2019
Video trailer here! Footage by Rose Lu
Choreography & Direction by Brinda Guha
Drive & Disconnect
Debuted in April 2020
Choreography by Brinda Guha
Remember me as a time of day
Debuted in June 2021
Choreography by Brinda Guha
1 thought on “Mission”