Nova Bhattacharya
Photo credit: Bob Gundu
Celebrated as a dance innovator, Nova Bhattacharya’s powerful and humanistic dance works emerge from three decades of practice in the multi-disciplinary art form of bharatnatyam. Described as “radical work that pulls apart notions of power, tradition, and ritual, puncturing exoticism and queries the contemporary” her creations offer poetic, metaphoric, and mythic exaltations of the human spirit. In 2008, she founded Nova Dance, a company dedicated to creating a professional context for Indian classical dancers and to reflecting the evolution of bharatnatyam on the Canadian scene. Her most recent work, Infinite Storms, premiered in Toronto, January 2017. The work invites the audience to consider one of the most common, and universal human experiences – pain. In exchange, it offers images of hope, joy, and resilience. It insists on accepting pain, and making peace with it. It highlights the strength and resources of the individual human being, and it reminds us of the meaning of community and compassion. www.novadance.ca