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Sep 25
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barkha patel will present icchā, an interdisciplinary solo kathak work at Tribeca Performing Arts Center.
icchā weaves original music and set design with the Gujarati folk form garba to explore a question many of us carry quietly: who do we hold within us, and what do we owe them?
In Hindu philosophy, vasanas (unfulfilled longings) are believed to survive the body and pass through bloodlines as living desire, or icchā. In this work, barkha is visited by her maternal ancestors in a dream shaped by survival, loss, intimacy, and the denial of dance and embodied selfhood. She becomes the vessel to express what they could not.
In Hindu philosophy, vasanas (unfulfilled longings) are believed to survive the body and pass through bloodlines as living desire, or icchā. In this work, barkha is visited by her maternal ancestors in a dream shaped by survival, loss, intimacy, and the denial of dance and embodied selfhood. She becomes the vessel to express what they could not.
It's a rare, embodied meditation on matrilineal memory that honors the women whose stories often go unrecorded and untold. It reclaims dance and the body as sites of cultural inheritance, at a moment when many South Asian diaspora communities are actively reckoning with what's been lost and what's worth reclaiming. It also offers a shared language and ancestral reverence for audiences to process their own family histories together.
barkha patel is a kathak dancer, choreographer, educator, and the Artistic Director of barkha dance company based in New York City. A touring artist, barkha has performed solo and ensemble works at dance festivals in India and the U.S. Her work has had the opportunity to present at venues such as Dance Theatre Harlem, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center: Out of Doors, Little Island Dance Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NJPAC and SOPAC. She has also performed at venues in India such as Lakme Fashion Week, Modhera Festival, Chidambaram Festival, Jamshedji Tata Theatre, India Habitat Center, Hyderabad Literature Festival, and the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center.
barkha was a Dance/USA Institute for Leadership mentee and a recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award. Through support of the New York State Dance Force, barkha completed her first tour to Western NY. She was a recipient of the Princess Grace Dance Award 2024, a finalist for the NEFA National Dance Grant, and a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow, where she developed a part of her new full-length work called Ramti Aave - Her Playful Arrival. She has been a recipient of residencies with Movement Research (‘22 - ‘24) and Topaz Arts (‘25 - ‘26).
barkha patel is a kathak dancer, choreographer, educator, and the Artistic Director of barkha dance company based in New York City. A touring artist, barkha has performed solo and ensemble works at dance festivals in India and the U.S. Her work has had the opportunity to present at venues such as Dance Theatre Harlem, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center: Out of Doors, Little Island Dance Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NJPAC and SOPAC. She has also performed at venues in India such as Lakme Fashion Week, Modhera Festival, Chidambaram Festival, Jamshedji Tata Theatre, India Habitat Center, Hyderabad Literature Festival, and the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center.
barkha was a Dance/USA Institute for Leadership mentee and a recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award. Through support of the New York State Dance Force, barkha completed her first tour to Western NY. She was a recipient of the Princess Grace Dance Award 2024, a finalist for the NEFA National Dance Grant, and a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow, where she developed a part of her new full-length work called Ramti Aave - Her Playful Arrival. She has been a recipient of residencies with Movement Research (‘22 - ‘24) and Topaz Arts (‘25 - ‘26).
