Dance Mission Theater: Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose USA – Unbound (2017); shared bill with InSyncKathak

Unbound
Rasika Kumar’s solo Bharatanatyam production takes you on an intimate journey, revealing how we, as women navigating our lives, endure a thousand subtle cuts that diminish us, forcing us to shrink and occupy less space in the world. What if we expanded to live a bold and unapologetic life? Featuring an original score by composer Sindhu Natarajan rooted in Carnatic music, Rasika’s storytelling draws on traditional narrative frameworks where the main character, the nayika, pleads with the Goddess, desperately seeking a new role model for the modern day woman.

Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose
Abhinaya Dance Company strives to present innovative and professional-quality performances of South Indian classical dance forms. Since 1986, Abhinaya has staged several full-length dance productions such as Shiva – The Cosmic Dancer (1986) to Jwala – The Immortal Flame (2011), Gandhi (2012), Arjuna (2014), and Vaanara Leela (2016), which received an Isadora Duncan Award for Best Performance. Abhinaya has been awarded several grants from state and city agencies and has collaborated with Kathak and modern dance companies, Japanese Taiko drummers, ShadowLight Theater, and a Balinese gamelan ensemble. From 2017 to 2019, Abhinaya explored themes of social justice through the experiences of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr. More recently, Abhinaya’s productions have focused on women’s issues, such as Through the Eyes of the Apsaras (2021) and Draupadi – The Unsung Warrior (2024). ‘California Wildfire’ premiered in 2022 addressed the pressing issue of climate change. Trained under Mythili Kumar and other renowned masters from Chennai, Rasika Kumar has become a central figure at Abhinaya, contributing as a principal dancer, soloist, and choreographer.

Prakriti
Prakriti is an ode to Mother Nature. It is a story about the precarious relationship between a nurturing yet authoritative mother and her intelligent yet most errant children! We humans, irrespective of our geography and politics, must embrace responsible sustainable actions to preserve our planet for future generations, else face the life-altering wrath of nature’s fury. Creation, coexistence, change, and resilience are threads woven into the beautiful tapestry of life. Drawing upon myriad personal experiences like wildfires, earthquakes, and droughts in California, this relentless human spirit and its tryst with Mother Nature is presented through Indian classical Kathak dance.

InSyncKathak
In the twelve years since its inception under the stewardship of Anupama Srivastava, InSyncKathak has won critical acclaim, 50+ awards and 250+ performances to its credit, including , All Indian Dance Festival at Carnegie Hall New York, Drive East Festival New York, New York Kathak Festival, Sacramento Dance Sampler, National YoungArts Week Miami, San Francisco Movement Arts Festival, Oakland Dance Festival, and Toronto International Youth Dance Festival.