ICCR-empanelled Kathak dancer
Sumedha Bhattacharyya
Dance artist · Researcher · Filmmaker · Choreographer · Educator
An interdisciplinary dance artist, choreographer, researcher, dance filmmaker and educator, working in the in-between: performance and technology, body and camera, tradition and rebellion, making and studying.
- Doctoral
- PhD in progress, Ethnomusicology — University of Music and Performing Arts Graz
- Master's
- Choreomundus MA, Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage — Erasmus Mundus scholarship; Norway, France, Hungary, UK
- Funding
- AHRC awardee, Goldsmiths, University of London — Water Nodes
- Faculty
- University of Utah · Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities · Ashoka University · Barnard College, Columbia University
Questions the work keeps asking
Research →
01
How does the camera become an extension of the dancer — and who sees whom?
02
How does water carry memory, and how do maternal histories move through the body?
03
How does longing between a grieving granddaughter and her grandmother's ghost take shape in Kathak vocabulary?
04
How is the loss of intergenerational memory tied to today's ecological crisis?
Practice
Selected work
Screen · Stage · Installation · Experiment
[ Still · bamboo, forest greys · Mizoram ]
Mau: The Spirit Dreams of Cheraw
2023[ Still · sand, red powder, a handwritten letter ]
Biroho
2022[ Still · motion-capture lines across a body ]
Water Nodes
2022[ Still · black and white, tight close-up ]
Jam Upload Download Upload Jam
2020[ Still · winter grass, bare trees ]
Saraab: Mirage
2018[ Still · red tripod on the stage floor ]
Duet with Camera
2020- San Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, 2018
- Rollottaa Dance Festival, Finland, 2019
- First Cut 7.0, New Delhi, 2019
- Jomba Festival, South Africa, 2021
- Embodied Research, JNU, 2022
Saraab: Mirage (2018), cinematography. Further laurels to be attributed to their films.
Teaching
[ Teaching philosophy — two or three sentences in Sumedha's own words ]
Founder of Duet with Camera (2020 onward), a pedagogy spanning performance, practice and documentation.
- University of Utah2025Visiting faculty · School of Dance and School of Film and New Media
- Ashoka University2024Part-time visiting faculty · workshop with Young India Fellows
- Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities[years]Assistant Professor · Dance, Vision and Movement
- Barnard College, Columbia University[year]Guest lecturer · Nation and Nationhood in Dance and Film
- Sangeet Natak Akademi, Natya Ballet Festival2022Workshop leader
[ Workshop clip · participants visible ]
[ Workshop clip · participants visible ]
[ Class demonstration · participants visible ]