“Right now, in Calcutta if someone is actually doing work for a general audience, it is Pickle Factory.
Considering the city we come from, the economic condition, the cultural scene has little to no funding… it’s a huge shift from what was. I think it’s a big leap towards a home for dance.”
Srijaa Kundu
workshop participant
#TakeTheCityKolkata :
Pickle Factory Season 3
What PF is
Pickle Factory Dance Foundation is a hub for the practice, discourse and presentation of dance and movement work in Calcutta, housed in spaces repurposed for the arts. We are a space to think, meet, know, talk, imagine – dance. Our big dream is a permanent venue in a repurposed space in Calcutta that transforms our experience of both physical movement and physical space. This venue will be local, national and international in outlook, participation and reach, and part of a network of such vital and vibrant arts spaces. We hope you will join us on this adventure.
Since 2018, we have consistently created and offered fresh modes, spaces and experiences of dance and movement performance to diverse audiences in Calcutta and beyond. In our quest and commitment to support, nurture, challenge and develop our local dance ecologies and engage a range of communities, we have worked with artists and guests from our city, the rest of India and abroad in the craziest of spaces converting them into magical pop-up performance venues and experiences.
More on our current programme here.
Why we exist
Dance can, does – and must – happen anywhere, with anyone, for anyone; and it can, does, and must transform everyone and everything it touches.
- Where can performance happen?
- What can dance and movement performance be?
- Who can present it or partake of it?
- How do we sustain and nurture these ecologies locally, nationally, and internationally?
These are the questions that drive us.
We respond to the lack of spaces and infrastructure in India to develop and nurture dance and movement work and artists. We work with, for and through artists, audiences and support systems to imagine our many possible futures. to:
- Make the arts accessible to all
- Ensure a diversity and pluralism of voices and exchanges
- Connect arts and communities in different ways
- Sustain and nurture our local dance ecologies
- Create and follow environmentally sensitive working systems for our context
Who we are
We are an artist led company, working with individual and organisational partners, and often self-generated support systems to build a diverse dance-curious community, connecting to larger conversations of arts and society.
Across the founding members of the company, our core team, associates and advisors we are a multidisciplinary and multifaceted family. Our backgrounds include dance (of course), theatre, music, film, literature, graphic design, arts administration, engineering, public relations and marketing, production management, project management, corporate management, architecture, accounting, sport, education, social entrepreneurship and more.
Among our team are ARThink South Asia (ATSA) Arts Management Fellows, International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) Fellows, Australian International Arts Leadership Programme alumni, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM) Global Connector alumni, Strategic Management for the Art of Theatre (SMART) alumni, International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) International Next Gen alumni, and national awardees of the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.
Between us, we have several decades of experience in working in the performing arts sector in India and abroad.
Where we are
While we work with partners nationally and internationally, we are rooted in our home city of Calcutta:
- a city with a strong cultural and socio-political history
- a true confluence of cultures, a unique pastiche of meeting and morphing peoples, times and traditions
- historically a centre for arts experimentation
- having a reputation for dealing in the currency of ideas and imagination
- home to a large population of artists and audiences hungry for art
