Ananya Dance Theatre

Ananya Dance Theatre: People Powered Dances of Transformation: is a professional, contemporary Indian dance company comprised of women artists of color. We describe ourselves as cultural activists, working through dance and artistic processes to engage audiences, build community, and move towards justice and beauty.

Our mission is to create original contemporary Indian dance theater at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice and an ensemble of dancers whose embodied power and beauty create seismic shifts in the ground on which they dance.

We intersect contemporary Indian dance with a philosophy of social justice to create original dance theater about the extraordinary work and dreams of women around the world, and to inspire audiences through visual and emotional engagement. Inspired by the commitment and passion of women’s movements globally, our work links women’s stories with movement to invoke broader questions about social justice.

We premiere one new work annually in the Twin Cities, and commission new music for each new work. We offer touring performances, workshops, and dialogues throughout the year. Our work has been presented in 11 other U.S. cities and 10 other countries. We work throughout the year with youth from marginalized communities to empower them to share their stories through abstract movement and emerge as artistic leaders of the next generation.

Our artistic work unfolds through Yorchha, a unique movement aesthetic of contemporary Indian dance, to explore feminine energy and celebrate a feminist aesthetic. This technical base crosses with our foundational philosophy of Shawngram, or resistance, to create a particular choreographic process and an abstract, metaphoric narrative arc.

We pursue excellence in our artistry to forge pathways that generate forces of strength and beauty, galvanize strong communities, and embody a philosophy of possibility and liberation in a shared humanity. Our work invites audiences to join us and participate in our strategy of #occupydance, the movement of dancing as civic action. 

ADT celebrated a decade of its existence in 2014 and is currently in the midst of a multi-year project, a quintet of works exploring the theme "Work Women Do," which celebrates the multiple ways in which women from global communities of color labor in little-acknowledged ways to sustain and transform their communities.