upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024
Pallabi will produce Celluloid E-motions, an evening-length dance theater piece using classical Indian dance, Bollywood dance, and Urdu poetry to explore spiritual, aesthetic and commodified emotions. This artistic work will showcase the power of emotions within an increasingly disembodied global culture, articulating life’s challenges within the context of contemporary urban America. Pallabi will draw upon elements from her own experiences in India and as part of the South Asian American Diaspora to question cultural authenticity and essentialism, challenging hierarchical categories of ‘classical’, ‘folk’ and ‘commercial’ in the discourse about Indian cultural heritage.