barkha dance co. presents icchā

In Hindu philosophy, vasanas are unfulfilled longings that survive the death of the physical body, passed down through bloodlines as living, present icchā / desire. icchā is a new interdisciplinary solo kathak work weaving original music, film, set design, and Gujarati folk form garba. barkha, a daughter whose path has diverged dramatically from her lineage, is visited by her maternal ancestors in a dream. They choose her to express, release, and fulfill their desires: born from survival, loss, intimacy, violence, and the denial of dance and embodied selfhood. icchā is meant to be a somatic shraadh, an ancestral reverence. The work confronts the body as a site of ancestral history, creating space within it to welcome unnamed matriarchs to breathe again and to ask ourselves what in our body might be their unfinished reaching? Barkha Patel is a touring kathak artist, choreographer, educator, and Artistic Director of Barkha Dance Company. Barkha’s work has been presented at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Little Island, 92Y, and Chelsea Factory among others. Barkha has been a recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award through which she received support from the New York State Dance Force in 2024 to tour a full-evening work ahaM | Maha. Barkha was awarded the Princess Grace Dance Award ‘24, selected as a finalist for NEFA’s NDP Finalist ‘24, and was a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow ‘24. She has been a recipient of residencies with Movement Research, NYS Choreographic Institute, and Topaz Arts. She completed her first India tour across six cities in ‘25 in collaboration with Canadian-based kathak artist Tanveer Alam. Barkha is currently a recipient of the Special Projects Grant from the Princess Grace Foundation. This residency at BMCC Tribeca PAC is part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), which receives major support from The Howard Gilman Foundation, George S. Kaufman Charitable Foundation, and The Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Additional support is provided by the SHS Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative

Event Links

Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3767645-0

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3767645-2

Read More

View Less