Co-presented by Pickle Factory Dance Foundation and Artsforward, Finding Ground offers a place of belonging for artists seeking to embody their unique voices through movement. It fosters belonging, creativity, and growth through meaningful exchange, transforming freeform expression into rooted presence. This platform showcases emerging artists’ original works in a professional setting, featuring performances by movement-based artists from across the country. Through community conversations, it offers to discuss community concerns, provides feedback, and explores resources and support systems that inspire artistic development. Finding Ground is a safe space for creativity, connection, and growth, inviting artists to explore the full spectrum of their craft.
For the 2025 edition our jury comprising Geeta Chandran, Diya Naidu and Turna Das have selected Senjam Hemjit from Imphal and Seher Noor Mehra from Bangalore to perform on Day 1. On Day 2, we partner with Prakriti Foundation, Chennai to present the works of the winners of the last two editions of PECDA (Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards): Pradeep Gupta from Raipur and Aseng Borang from Roing.
Finding Ground 2025
Day 1
Friday, 17 January 2025
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
6.30pm
Anoirol | Senjam Hemjit | Imphal
The piece explores the complex connection between our earth and the cosmos. Within the celestial realm, every entity maintains a distinctive blend of body, mind, and spiritual structure, each gracefully moving along its designated path in the dance of discovery. The piece delves into the concept that every earthly or celestial existence generates a distinctive and enigmatic energy that originates from the core of the profound interconnectedness between our world and the universe beyond.
‘Bujjo!’ Belongs | Seher Noor Mehra | Bangalore
This piece explores the artist’s longing to reconnect with their ancestral home, Ujhani, built by their grandfather, and rediscover a deeper sense of belonging. Rooted in Sufism and Punjabi traditions, their identity is shaped by mysticism and resilience. Through video, sound, movement, and memory, the work reflects on lineage, heritage, and the places that ground us, inviting collective reflection on belonging and the lasting influence of family.
Finding Ground 2025
Day 2
Saturday, 18 January 2025
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
4.30pm / 6.30pm
Community Conversations | 4.30pm
What can the dance sector learn from other arts and community ecosystems? Ecosystem builders from various sectors across India share insights on their community-building practices, offering valuable lessons for dance professionals. By exploring strategies from diverse fields, the dance sector can enhance collaboration, sustainability, and engagement. These cross-sector perspectives highlight innovative approaches to fostering strong, inclusive communities.
Our speakers include:
Dr. Padmini Ray Murray, founder of Design Beku, Bangalore
Ritesh Gohiya, co-founder and director of SHEDO, Madhya Pradesh
Kallol Bhattacharya, founder-director of Ebong Amra Theatre and Tepantor Theatre Village, West Bengal
Performances by PECDA awardees | 6.30pm
Bindadevi | Pradeep Gupta | Raipur
This piece explores the transformation of the human body into a non-human form using sticks attached to the palms and feet. As the process unfolds, the sticks assimilate, becoming intrinsic to the body’s structure, reflecting human geometry controlled by the body’s center.The dance’s name, BINDA DEVI, honors the artist’s parents and draws from themes of emotional dependence, affection, and conflict. The struggle to integrate the sticks mirrors the challenge of reconciling thoughts and emotions in close relationships, blending physical and emotional exploration through movement.
The Chinky Express Comes to Town | Aseng Borang | Roing
What if somebody was denied eye contact, space, or even the right to stand tall? What if they were given adjectives instead of a name? Sometimes, they are edible, a doll, a fetish, a savage—a caricature, but never a person. They are mocked, humiliated, and only seen as others wish.
You are here to watch. Not to pity. Someone wants to educate them, convert them, enslave them. You watch them erode.
She is the exhibit. The artist. The specimen. The entertainment.
Welcome the Chinky Express to your town. Only for your eyes.
Meet the Artists, Facilitators, and Speakers
Senjam Hemjit Meitei (Tombi), founder of ARDAC THE SAYON from Sagolband Kangabam Leikai, is a skilled choreographer trained in traditional and modern dance and Manipur martial arts (Thang Ta). His group has won numerous awards in state and national competitions, represented Manipur in the 2019 Indian Hip-Hop Championship, and performed at PECDA in 2018, 2022, and 2024. Internationally, they’ve toured Thailand, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and France. Currently, Tombi collaborates with Nachom Art Foundation under Surjit Nongmeikapam, furthering his contemporary dance practice.
Seher Noor Mehra views dance and movement as powerful modes of expression, healing, and storytelling. Dancing since age of eight, she trained in bharatanatyam, jazz, ballet, contemporary dance, yoga, and Indian martial and folk forms. A graduate of Attakalari Centre for Movement Arts, she performed professionally with Nritarutya Dance Company. Seher’s work blends her diverse training and personal experiences. Her solo Ricochet premiered at ‘Platform’. Currently, she collaborates on ‘Timelines,’ an inclusion project exploring lineage and shared histories, supported by England’s Cultural Council.
Pradeep Gupta, a contemporary choreographer from Chhattisgarh, began his dance journey in 2014. Self-taught in his early years, he drew inspiration from television and YouTube before training with mentors worldwide, despite lacking formal schooling. Passionate about contemporary dance, Pradeep’s work explores questions emerging from his choreographic practice and life. His choreography reflects socio-political and environmental issues in Chhattisgarh. Pradeep seeks to reimagine dance beyond traditional stages, focusing on experimentation with space, time, and the human body.
Aseng Borang, an Indian choreographer and writer, explores the body, objects, and landscapes through resistance, vulnerability, and self-assertion. A PECDA 2018 winner, she has participated in global residencies like CAMPING Paris and Delfina Foundation London and performed at festivals like Serendipity Arts. Founder of STUDIO YINGKO in Arunachal Pradesh, she engages local communities in dance-making. Her practice questions inherited systems, redefining dance and performance with quietness, playfulness, and profound inquiry.
Pallabi Chakravorty is Stephen Lang Professor of Performing Arts in the Dance Department at Swarthmore College, U.S. She is a visual anthropologist, a Kathak dancer, and a dance-maker. Her interdisciplinary research on embodied practices includes long-term and multi-sited ethnographic engagements in India. She is the artistic director and founder of Courtyard Dancers, a non-profit based in Philadelphia and Kolkata. She is widely published and is currently writing a book on yoga and performance titled Critical Postures: Towards a New Somatics of Yoga, Performance, and Healing.
Dr Padmini Ray Murray is a researcher and maker whose practice focuses on challenging acts of infrastructural and algorithmic violence by creating alternative digital spaces and imaginations that are characterised by feminist values, specifically an ethics of care. To explore the possibilities of manifesting these spaces, Padmini founded Design Beku, a design and digital collective of researchers, artists, technologists and designers who work towards making design and digital practice more locally rooted, contextually relevant and ethical.
Based in Harda, Madhya Pradesh, Ritesh Gohiya is facilitating dialogue and solidarity on India’s constitutional values through music. He and his team at SHEDO are creating alliances and platforms of folk artists, rural musicians, and grassroots young performers from the Dalit and Adivasi communities of Central India. Through fellowships, a community recording center, and cultural events, SHEDO is launching young performers and local bands, strengthening the Kabir-Nirguni music practices of the region, and rebuilding the livelihoods of artists. Ritesh has informally trained and mentored more than 2000 rural youth musicians to build their practice of performing and dialoguing with peer networks on living the Indian constitution through music in the Kabir tradition
Kallol Bhattacharyya founded the theatre group Ebong Amra in 1994, recruiting performers from tribal communities, peasants, and bricklayers. He integrates theatre with sustainable living through farming and poultry. A playwright, director, and actor, he has written and directed 27 plays, working in proscenium, open-air, and experimental theatre. He has collaborated with renowned theatre figures and international groups. His acclaimed works include Oedipus, Andha Yug, and Mahakabyer Pore. He established Tepantar, West Bengal’s only theatre village, hosting workshops, festivals, and training programs, aiming to create an ideal rural theatre center with a unique theatrical language.
