Sandra Chatterjee’s (PhD, UCLA) choreographic and scholarly work is situated at the intersection of theory and practice deals with performance, dance, and the body with a focus on gender, postcolonial and migration studies.
She is interested in direct exchange and wants to involve senses less considered in dance (e. g. smells and their political dimensions) and has been investigating performance and smell since 2019, for example in projects such as “smells of racism” and “SWEAT – Smells of Labour“.
For the period 2020-2022 she was chosen to be part of the selection of artists for the international exchange and production platform FREISCHWIMMEN
Another major project she is involved in currently is CHAKKARs-Moving Interventions, an initiative dedicated to anti-discriminatory approaches to dance from BIPOC | postmigrant perspectives (in other words, critical intersectional anti-racist, queer, anti-classist and postcolonial /decolonizing perspectives) in Munich together with Sarah Bergh.
Sandra was initially trained in the classical Indian dance form Kuchipudi and completed her Rangapravesam (debut) under the guidance of Ranga Vivekanandan-Barth in Munich. As a dancer, therefore, she considers Kuchipudi as a dance language as her first language. The paradox of dancing Kuchipudi but not being or speaking Telugu (the language of Andhra Pradesh) is integral to her identity as a dancer led Sandra towards creating contemporary choreography, which has evolved into her main artistic focus. In addition to Kuchipudi (with Ranga Vivekanandan-Barth, Jaya Rama and Vanashree Rao, and Sumathy Kaushal), Bharatanatyam (with Padmini Chari, Arup Ghosh and Malathi Iyengar) and most recently Odissi, (with Sharon Lowen) as well as Polynesian, modern/postmodern/contemporary European dance techniques, and yoga. Her choreographic work has been presented in dance and academic venues such as Canteen Art Space /PMBCK Howrah (West Bengal), Spielart Festival (Munich, 2021/2023), Rodeo Festival (Munich, 2020) and FmR Festival (Munich, 2022), hochx Theater (Munich), Pathos (Munich), Einstein Kultur (Munich), brut (Vienna) Tanzkongress 2016 (Hannover) and 2022 (Mainz); Nagib/Maribor (Slovenia), Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf); National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi); Chandra-Mandapa: Spaces (Chennai); The Park’s New Festival (Chennai); The Other Festival (Chennai); Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles); University of Toronto; Nehru Centre (London).
In her current research, recent publications, talks, and lecture performances she has been critically interrogating the aesthetic category of the “contemporary” in the context of concert dance in central and northern continental Europe and analyzes selected choreographic articulations between European and Indian dance (2012- 2016 as postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Art, Music and Dance studies, University of Salzburg). Additional (research) interests include (artistic) collaboration, and the possible intersection of artistic practice, civil engagement and claiming cultural and artistic citizenship. Until 2023, she was part of the research team of the FWF-funded project Border Dancing across Time (P 31958-G) at the University of Salzburg.
Sandra has taught a wide range of interdisciplinary classes ranging from dance studies, dance practice, gender studies to participatory art, comparative cultural studies and discourse analysis at universities including UCLA (Department of World Arts and Cultures); University of Salzburg; Kunstuniversität Linz; and University Mozarteum. In the Wintersemester 2018/19 she was guest professor for Dance Studies at ZZT – Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz in Cologne and was on the Rutgers Arts Online Faculty as instructor 2017-2022.
Sandra is a co-founder of the Post Natyam Collective, an internet-based network of choreographers/scholars, working in live performance, video, and scholarship. She was also a co-initiator and co-organizer of ArtSensation (2006) and Integrier-Bar, Munich (2011-2013) and iIn collaboration with Siglinde Lang she has co-organized the 7hoch2//Festival für zivile Auftragskunst in Salzburg, which is a festival at the intersection of civil engagement and art.
She studied Dance and “Culture and Performance” in Honolulu and Los Angeles (Bachelor of Arts in Dance (ethnology emphasis), University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM); Master of Arts in Dance, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); PhD in Culture and Performance, UCLA: dissertation: Undomesticated Bodies: South Asian Women Perform the Impossible); post-graduate programme in “Kultur und Organisation”, University of Vienna and Institut für Kulturkonzepte.
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Sandra Chatterjee ist Choreographin und Wissenschaftlerin im Bereich Culture und Performance, und Tanzwissenschaft. Zu ihren aktuellen Projekten zählt die choreographische Arbeit mit Gerüchen (2023 “SWEAT – Smells of Labour“, 2021/2022 SMELLS OF RACISM); die Organisation von CHAKKARs – Moving Interventions. Für 2020-2022 war sie als Künstlerin der internationalen Austausch und Produktionsplattform FREISCHWIMMEN ausgewählt.
In ihrer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit mit den Forschungsschwerpunkten Performance-und Kultur- und Tanzwissenschaften, Genderstudien, Migration und Postcolonial Studies erkundet sie stets die Überschneidungspunkte zwischen Theorie und künstlerischer Praxis. Sie ist ausserdem Gründungsmitglied der Post Natyam Collective, einer multi-nationalen, internet-basierten Gruppe von Choreographinnen und Wissenschafterinnen, die sich durch interdisziplinäre Arbeit in Tanz, Performance und Video, kritisch mit südasiatischer Ästhetik auseinandersetzen.
Studium Tanz und ‘Culture and Performance’ in Honolulu und Los Angeles (Bachelor of Arts in Dance (ethnology emphasis), University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM); Master of Arts in Dance, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Promotion in Culture and Performance, UCLA: Promotionsprojekt: Undomesticated Bodies: South Asian Women Perform the Impossible); post-graduate Lehrgang in Kultur und Organisation, Universität Wien und Institut für Kulturkonzepte. Im WS 2018/2019 war sie Gastprofessorin für Tanzwissenschaft am ZZT- Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln. 2017-2022 Teil der Rutgers Arts Online Faculty.